3 December 2007

FROM THE CEO'S DESK

Well the election is finally behind us and it is now time to get down to business working with the new Federal Government and particularly the new Minister for Tourism Martin Ferguson and Jim Turnour and Bob Katter as the members who represent us in the seats of Leichhardt and Kennedy here in Tropical North Queensland.

Just prior to the election we welcomed Labor’s export development support policies for regional tourism organisation’s announced by the Hon Simon Crean MP. They offer the expansion of the Export Market Development Grant program which has been a priority for TTNQ for many years on which we have been lobbying on behalf of our industry. We appreciate Labor’s recognition that more should be done to help Australia’s regional tourism industry promote itself in key overseas markets and their consideration of the policy papers which TTNQ developed on a number of issues, including EMDGs prior to the election and canvassed to all parties.
 
Under the proposal, EMDG funding could be accessed for the first time by approved regional economic development bodies, including regional tourism authorities. This will support our existing marketing activities in both established and emerging markets and ensure that our destination remains a strong player in Australia’s tourism industry and we achieve our vision to be the world’s best tropical holiday destination. This policy will also allow TTNQ to work with small to medium enterprises in regional areas and with niche products to facilitate a cluster approach to international marketing. This will greatly enhance our ability to increase our product mix.

We were also pleased to see Labor recognise our proposal for an aviation strategy incorporating regional airport development and improved delivery of services and welcome their plan to conduct a twelve month aviation review that will include this as a focus.

This week we have also welcomed announcements by Jetstar of increased domestic services into Cairns from our key markets of Melbourne and Sydney from March 2008 supported by the introduction of a future fleet of Airbus A321s (subject to regulatory approval). There will also be an additional daily return Jetstar service from Brisbane from June 2008.

Jetstar will commence operation of the Cairns-Darwin-Singapore route currently operated by Jetstar Asia in February 2008 supporting an additional A320 and bringing more good news for the regional economy with an additional 30 Jetstar crew to be based here. As part of this service the airline will also add a new daily Cairns-Darwin domestic route. We also welcome the continuation of five services from both Nagoya and Osaka for the northern winter season.

TTNQ welcomes Jetstar’s commitment to Cairns as Australia’s tropical air gateway and we will continue to work closely with them to promote the destination in our domestic and international markets. It was my pleasure to present Bruce Buchanan, Jetstar Group General Manager Commercial, with a token of our appreciation during his visit to Cairns last week.

Rob Giason Chief Executive Officer

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THE LATEST NEWS

NEW BOARD MEMBER
TTNQ Chairman Stephen Olle has announced the appointment of a new Board Member, Michael Trout, who is no doubt well known to many of you as Manager of Blazing Saddles and Mungalli Falls Student Village. Everyone at TTNQ warmly welcomes Michael to the position and the Board looks forward to his input and the benefit of his extensive industry experience.

SELL TNQ – ANOTHER SUCCESS STORY
Thirty-five key conference organisers, meeting planners and business tourism media representatives experienced five days in Tropical North Queensland to discover the region’s extensive and sophisticated business tourism infrastructure during Sell TNQ, Cairns and Region Convention Bureau’s showcase annual marketing event.

The delegates flew into to Cairns on Friday 16 November and were quickly whisked away to Port Douglas which they called home for the next three nights. Their itinerary there included an official welcome by Queensland’s Tourism Minister, Desley Boyle and a workshop where they had personal appointments with 34 industry partners.

Post-touring was more popular than ever, with a record number of 22 delegates extending their stay in Palm Cove until Wednesday 21 November. The feedback below from participants gives a good indication of Sell TNQ’s success and there are good indications of plenty of future business to come our way as a result.

Thank you for your time spent in arranging Sell TNQ, as a PCO I can appreciate the amount of effort that goes into these things. The workshop on Saturday, although exhausting, was incredibly helpful to me and I gained a good ides of what to put forward to my client for an incentive trip. I’d been up there personally and done the “attractions” but I knew there’d be so much more and I was right – my mind is now buzzing with what I can offer and how the hell I’m going to fit it all in five days!
Caroline Jones – Director of Professional Corporate Conferences

I just wanted to sincerely thank one and all for hosting and putting together a fantastic and most beneficial famil that was a great showcase for the respective products that we saw and met with over the weekend. I know how much work goes into such events and therefore a round of applause to you all for making it work as well as it did.
David Reid – General Manager of Southbound Australia

I found the experience extremely beneficial and now have some good local suppliers to work with for next year’s event as well as options to explore for the other two events that are in the late stages of consideration for the region for 2009 and 2011.
Susan Hobbs - Director of Events. EventCorp

NEW ZEALAND MEGAFAMIL
TTNQ, in conjunction with Tourism Queensland, recently welcomed 32 travel agents from New Zealand to experience Tropical North Queensland and learn as much as they could about what our destination has to offer visitors from New Zealand. The agents arrived here in two waves, coming together for a day of workshops with 34 TTNQ members who had the opportunity to promote their products and services one on one to each of the agents. Each group also enjoyed separate familiarisation visits with their itineraries including all of the participating tourism products. Tropical North Queensland attracted around 37,500 visitors from New Zealand during the year ending June 2007 which represented a 25 per cent drop so marketing activities such as this are vital to help us regain this important market.

EMERGING MARKETS
The Emerging Markets Tourism Advisory Group (ETAG) meeting was held last week and one of the critical Action Items from it was dissemination of a Questionnaire relating to statistics for these markets as there is grave concern that the Statistics received from Tourism Research Australia (TRA – IVS) do not truly reflect the number of visitors from the Emerging Markets that our destination welcomes each year.

Your response to this Questionnaire will help with future discussion with TRA/TA, TQ, CPA and airlines that are flying or considering flying into Cairns and can only contribute to future market activities/spend. All information received will be treated confidentially and will be grouped depending on Reef/Land Tour/Accommodation etc.

Please complete the Questionnaire and return to Annie Riddet by Friday, 14 December 2007 for analysis. For more information contact elizabeth.webb@tnq.org.au

The meeting also saw the appointment of Michael Trout to the position of Chair of the ETAG. Another action set was for TTNQ to work with TQ to investigate third party affinity marketing opportunities for China. The ETAG will meet three times per year from now on at the request of the TTNQ Board.

NEW STATS OUT SOON
The International Visitor Survey and the National Visitor Survey – Year Ending Sept 2007 are due for release on 7 December and 14 December respectively. TTNQ’s research department will be preparing IVS and NVS summaries following these releases and these will be available through our website and In Touch with TTNQ soon after these dates.

MTSRF FUNDS ENABLE RESEARCH ANALYSIS
Our tourism industry in Tropical North Queensland is heavily reliant on the natural resources of our environment - beaches, reef, rainforests, outback, etc. and increasingly the tourism industry finds it has to become actively engaged in the decision making by community and government with respect to use and management of the natural assets which often are the core of operators’ tour products. 

To be successfully engaged we must have information that is well researched and capable of supplying leading edge knowledge.  With the creation of the federally funded Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility (MTSRF) a window has opened for the industry to seek badly needed research, becoming well informed and engaged as a major participant in the region’s decision making. 

Within the MTSRF budget funds were made available to the TNQ tourism industry to seek input from tourism operators on what research is needed.  TTNQ is managing these funds and consulting firm Kleinhardt was employed to compile a document which covers the terrestrial industry. Tourism Research Needs Analysis. Kleinhardt is currently developing a similar document for the marine component. 

TTNQ members and interested stakeholders are also invited to read a Summary of the Research Project.

TOURISM RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION PROJECT TO ADDRESS INDUSTRY STAFF SHORTAGES
The Queensland Tourism Industry Council recently launched the Queensland Tourism Recruitment and Retention Project (TRARP), to assist tourism and hospitality businesses in avoiding high staff turnover costs. TRARP offers resources including short, online courses in staff and time management, workshops and a free staff management toolkit that contains ready-to-use templates, tip sheets and checklists.  TRARP also provides diversity workshops about accessing the valuable skills of indigenous, multicultural and matured aged people, parents and carers of children and people with disabilities. For more information visit: www.qtic.com.au. email: trarp@qtic.com.au, telephone: 07-3236-1445.

VIRGIN HELPS VOLUNTEERS CHEER TAIPANS
Some of the Visitor Information Centre volunteers enjoyed a night out at the basketball to cheer on the Taipans, thanks to Virgin Blue Airlines.

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IMPORTANT UPCOMING EVENTS

DATE CLAIMER: TQ INTERNATIONAL MARKET BRIEFINGS
Tourism Queensland will hold their International Market Briefing in Cairns on Thursday 21 February 2008. The briefings will follow a new format to ensure that industry gets the most from the sessions. More details will be provided as they become available.

EXCELLENT MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES

QOT CHINA & TAIWAN & CHINESE TRAVEL PLANNER REMINDERS
Registrations for Queensland on Tour China & Queensland on Tour Taiwan close Friday, 21 December. For the Prospectus or further information please contact Elizabeth Webb – elizabeth.webb@tnq.org.au

Tourism Queensland Chinese Travel Planner participation also closes Friday, 21 December. This publication is distributed throughout mainland China and Hong Kong and is used as a guideline for Tourism Queensland of those products that are working/interested in the Chinese market. Preference for participation/inclusion missions, famils etc. will be given to operators who appear in the TQ Chinese Travel Planner.  For more information please contact Carol Chiu – TQ Hong Kong – carol.chiu@tq.com.au

BEHIND THE SCENES

• A TTNQ Board Meeting was held on 20 November in Cairns at which Neil Quinn CEO the Cairns Port Authority provided an update on the Cairns International Airport and Noel Briggs of Cairns city Council discussed council amalgamations.
• Rob and John attended the Alliance for Sustainable Tourism meeting. Rob also attended meetings with QPWS, PDDT, CPA and participated in Tourism Network Review workshops.
• John has been working with David Morgans from TQ on the 2025 Regional Plan. They have been successful in ensuring tourism development options outside the urban area will be properly considered under the Plan – this provides our industry with real security for growth into the future.
• Rob and Sharyn will travel to Sydney for the ATEC Meeting Place, where Rob will give a presentation on the Planet Safe Partnership program.
• Angela Uhlig of CRCB is in the United States for the business tourism marketing event PRIME and she made a stop in Sydney en route for a round of sales calls.
• Sharyn assisted the agents who came to the region for pre-touring as part of the UK-Ireland Corroboree and also a German group who travelled to Cape York. A North American famil group has arrived this week.
• Liz is continuing work on Team Cairns activities and the proposed Chinese New Year charter flights by China Southern and another Qantas airline. She is also working along with Dion and Karen and TQ on the Domestic Virgin Blue campaign to run in February and March next year.
• Harry and Lisa have been busy with the Jetstar media famil and have a Jetstar trade famil arriving this month. They are also actively working with the trade to continue to promote the Jetstar Japan services.
• Val and David attended the Cassowary Awards
• Another successful Tourism Elder’s dinner was held last week bringing together 27 tourism operators. The industry elders shared their knowledge with new managers, new members and member’s representatives who are new to the region.

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SEEN IN THE MEDIA

• A recent episode of Escape with ET which goes to air on Network 10 at 4:30pm on Saturdays featured Toby driving the CREB track from Cairns and also the Cairns Coconut Caravan Park.
• Overlander 4WD published an article on Cape York by Denis O’Byrne in their December edition
• Port Douglas and the Great Tropical Drive featured in the Sunshine Coast edition of Style Magazine.
• Quinkan rock art and Captain Cook Cruises were highlighted in an article in The Senior recently.

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

Brought to you by TTNQ's Corporate Sponsors.

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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.