19 November 2007

FROM THE CEO'S DESK

We welcomed the participation of five candidates for the federal seat of Leichhardt in our recent Future of Tourism in Tropical Australia Forum and I thank Charlie McKillop, Jim Turnour, Ian Crossland, Ben Jacobsen and Sue Cory for attending. Norman Miller had hoped to also attend but was unable to do so due to the death of his father and we offer him and his family our sincere condolences at this sad time.

TTNQ had previously met with representatives of the major parties in Canberra and presented to them our key policy proposals to support tourism in our destination.

What we seek is:

• A policy framework designed to support growth in international air access for second tier airports to enable Australia’s regional airports and particularly Cairns, to secure new international airline services.
• Provision of business marketing, promotional and business ready support to indigenous tourism ventures which will increase the indigenous tourism offer in tropical Australia by rewarding and nurturing commitment and success.
• Improvement of the effectiveness of Australia’s international tourism marketing structures.
• Enabling of Australia’s fastest and growing and most efficient internationally competitive destination, Tropical North Queensland, to access funds through the EMDG program to achieve benefits across the destination and so create a model which could be used across the country.

The Leichhardt candidates answered three set questions based on these policy proposals. They then answered questions from the floor many of which related to these same key issues as well as visitor dispersal, skills shortages and climate change. While I am not here to tell you who to vote for, I urge you to consider the tack each candidate and their party takes on support for our tourism industry before making that important choice for 24 November.

Rob Giason Chief Executive Officer

Back to top

 
THE LATEST NEWS

SELL TNQ ANOTHER SUCCESS
Cairns and Region Convention Bureau’s showcase in-destination business tourism marketing event, Sell TNQ, is already proving a great success. The event officially commenced on Friday with a welcome luncheon at Rydges Sabaya Resort Port Douglas and a welcome evening function on Quicksilver VIII at which the guest of honour was the Minister for Tourism Desley Boyle. The 35 participating buyers have come from all over Australia to experience Tropical North Queensland’s business tourism capacity and meet with the 34 exhibitors to learn more about their specific business tourism products and services. The two days of workshops in Port Douglas are to be followed by post-touring in Palm Cove and Cairns.

FUNDING BOOST FOR TNQ
The Minister for Tourism Desley Boyle has announced that TTNQ will receive a special grant of $79,200 as part of the Queensland Tourism Strategy to deliver improved online presence for the destination and to help identify development opportunities in the region.

HISTORIC CAPE YORK AGREEMENT SIGNED
An historic partnership between the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership, Balkanu Cape York Business Development and Tourism Tropical North Queensland sets out a strategic process whereby, for the first time in Australia, community development organisations and tourism industry representatives will work together to create a new world-class tourism destination. This is a big step forward in the process of growing and sustaining tourism in Tropical Australia. TTNQ has long recognised the Cape’s huge potential to offer a unique mix of tourism products that could attract high yielding niche markets, but this has remained undeveloped for various reasons. However, over the past few years TTNQ has been working with indigenous and mainstream operators in the Cape to put together a package of products to present to our distribution partners in Europe, UK and North America. Simultaneously a range of groups such as the Cape York Institute and Balkanu, supported by State and Australian Government Agencies have been working hard to address some of the issues that have limited the growth of tourism in the Cape through initiatives such as Alcohol Management Plans, the work towards resolving land tenure issues and the recently adopted Welfare Reform process.  This work provides a sound foundation for the creation of real jobs and real businesses opportunities for all people living in the region and TTNQ looks forward to working as a partner in the next stage of this process.

CONTINENTAL SENDAI TRADE FAMIL
TTNQ’s Japan team, Harry & Lisa hosted an industry networking dinner function at the Cairns International to welcome the Continental Airlines Sendai famil that was supported by Continental, TTNQ and Tourism Queensland. The group, consisting of seven agents from various travel agencies in the Sendai region, were all first-timers to Cairns and despite the rainy weather very much enjoyed their visit, taking in the reef & rainforest and various other activities. Continental Airlines Sendai has strongly supported Cairns by providing competitive airfares to the travel trade.

JAPAN MISSION DVD A WINNER
The five-minute destination DVD created for the TTNQ 2007 Japan Mission by Tony Gordon of Whitelight Film & Video in conjunction with TTNQ‘s Harry, Lisa and Dion was awarded Best International Media Advertisement in the recent Queensland Multi Media Awards 2007. The footage highlighted the variety of products and experiences available for Japanese visitor to Tropical North Queensland to enjoy. Congratulations to all involved.

REMINDER – UPDATE TTNQ LOGO
Do you have the current “Member of TTNQ” logo on your website?
If not you can use this file to update it:

 MEMBER OF TTNQ LOGO

TTNQ WELCOMES NEW MEMBER
Cairns Visitors Guide www.cairnsvisitors.com.au 
Cairns Visitors Guide is printed in simplified Chinese and specifically targets the Chinese traveller to Cairns and Tropical North Queensland. It features a diverse range of attractions, activities, facilities and amenities, detailed maps and information about our community, culture and heritage.

Arup www.arup.com
Arup is a design and business consulting firm with a global presence with over 9000 employees, providing engineering, planning, project management and environmental management services in every field relating to civil, industrial and building works, as well as specialist consultancies in related fields. The Cairns office focuses on the provision of project management, civil and structural engineering, water planning and sustainability services.

Trinity Beach Transfers
Trinity Beach Transfers is a ground based people transfer service which operates between Cairns Northern Beaches, Cairns City and the Airport. This personalised Transfer Service has been operating for approximately 10 years. Trinity Beach Transfers also operates Day Tours, Extended Tours and Charters around Cairns, the Atherton Tablelands and the Gulf Savannah.

Back to top

 
IMPORTANT UPCOMING EVENTS

JETSTAR VISIT – NEXT TUESDAY
Jetstar chief executive officer Alan Joyce is expected to be in Cairns on Tuesday 27 November. TTNQ will advise members as soon as possible of details of an expected opportunity to attend morning tea with Mr Joyce.

IMPORTANT UPCOMING EVENTS

TNQ ROADSHOW UK & EUROPE MARCH/APRIL 2008
The dates have been confirmed for the upcoming TNQ Roadshow. The TNQ UK & Europe Roadshow will be held from 29 March to 10 April 2008. The cities planned to be visited are; London, Manchester, Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, Zurich, Milan, Munich and Frankfurt. The roadshow will include selected product training along with evening events. If you would like to peruse the "Prospectus" please contact Jana Stankovich at jana.stankovich@tnq.org.au or 07 40151215 at your earliest convenience. Please note this marketing initiative will be subject to TTNQ member support.

FAIRFAX TROPICAL NORTH QUEENSLAND MAGAZINE INSERT
This TQ/TTNQ initiative builds on the success of the Change Your Latitude campaign and provides advertisers with distribution throughout Sydney and Melbourne. Click here for more information.

POST JAM REGIONAL JAPAN MARKETING ACTIVITY
As a post-Japan Australia Mission (JAM) 08 activity, TTNQ will conduct a series of Cairns & Great Barrier Reef seminars in Japan regional areas to be held from 25 February to 29 February. TTNQ and representatives from TQ Japan and Jetstar will be visiting Kagoshima, Kumamoto, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Kanazawa and Nagoya to promote our region to agents and wholesalers. We are seeking Expressions of Interest from operators attending JAM 08 who would like to accompany TTNQ to the various regional cities. If you would like to get more information please contact Lisa Monks at lisa.monks@tnq.org.au or 07-4015-1219 at your earliest convenience. 

AUSTRALIAN TOURISM EXCHANGE 2008 - seller applications now open
ATE 2008 will be held at the Perth Convention Exhibition Centre from Saturday 14 - Friday 20 June 2008. For more information on what’s new, preliminary programs, key dates and deadlines, participation fees and selection criteria, click here.

BEHIND THE SCENES

• Rob’s key activities in the past two weeks have included attending the National Parks forum and the Mamu Canopy Walk assessment and meeting with CRC Sustainable Tourism. He has also participated in Sell TNQ activities, welcoming Minister Boyle, the buyers and exhibitors on Friday evening and attending the workshops on Monday. This week he travels to Melbourne for meetings with Jetstar.
• David is working with airlines interested in running charters into Cairns for the Chinese New Year period and Liz is assisting a Chinese film drew here to shoot footage for promotion of the charters.
• Lisa and Harry are busy planning for two upcoming Jetstar famils, one for media later this month and one for trade in December.
• Jana attended the Sydney Backpacker & Adventure Travel Expo last week.
• CRCB’s Angela was also in Sydney to make sales calls with business tourism buyers.
• The first round of delegates on the NZ Megafamil arrive in Tropical North Queensland on Friday, with the second round arriving on Monday.
• Preparations continue for the visit here by 18 Aussie Specialist agents for the Corroboree 07 UK & Ireland famil.
• Media representatives coming to the region soon include freelance travel writer from New Zealand, Graham Reid, who is participating in the NZ Megafamil, and Australian Jewish News writer Danny Gocs, who arrives this weekend for a 10 day stay.
• John and Dion have been finalising official activity under the Great Tropical Drive project.
• Dion is also finalising the new TTNQ Image Library.
• Jane Nicholson from Tourism Queensland’s UK office is here for a few days to conduct meetings and she will attend Tuesday’s Western TAG Meeting as will TTNQ’s UK European in market representative Rhett Lego who is also visiting here.
• The Eastern TAG meeting will be held on Thursday.

If you have a good news story or have achieved a recent success please send your information to Helen Laird.

In Touch with TTNQ e-newsletter is produced by Tourism Tropical North Queensland. If you would like to unsubscribe to future mailings of In Touch with TTNQ, please email membership@tnq.org.au.  

While every effort is made to ensure the information in this newsletter is accurate, Tourism Tropical North Queensland disclaims all responsibility and liability (including without limitation, liability in negligence) for all expenses, losses, damages and costs incurred as a result of the information being inaccurate or incomplete in anyway, and for any reason.