21 February 2008

FROM THE CEO'S DESK

With 17 Tropical North Queensland operators joining Cairns and Region Convention Bureau in Melbourne this week for the Asia-Pacific Incentives & Meetings Expo (AIME) it is a good time to look at our business tourism sector.

Business tourism is estimated to contribute some $280 million to the regional economy each year with around $72 million of that in 2007 coming from events held at the Cairns Convention Centre.

This sector can help to build visitor numbers during our traditionally quieter periods, delegates often bring partners and families with them to enjoy the destination and extend their length of stay and expenditure by taking up pre and post-event touring options.

The results of the latest Queensland Business Events Survey (July 06 – June 07) showed the region attracted 84 per cent more business events which included an overnight stay, 81 per cent more delegates and 63 per cent more delegate days compared to the previous year.

I sincerely thank those members who responded to our calls for greater participation in this survey. This has helped us gain a clearer picture of the region’s business tourism performance, something which was also boosted by the survey conducted by the Cairns Convention Centre.

AIME is one of the major business tourism marketing activities for CRCB and TNQ operators, along with Sell TNQ, the showcase event held here in the region for selected buyers. There is an enormous amount of work that goes into the planning and preparation for these events. Congratulations to everyone involved and I am confident that the region will secure plenty of business as a result.

Rob Giason Chief Executive Officer

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THE LATEST NEWS

CHINESE CHARTERS SUCCESS
The 13 charters which came to Cairns during Chinese New Year brought over 3,000 visitors to Tropical North Queensland from this important growing market. TTNQ, the Cairns Port Authority and the Tropical North Queensland tourism industry worked together with China Southern to secure their charter flights along with three from Viva Macau and eight from Qantas. It was the first time China Southern and Viva Macau have landed in Cairns.

60 WAYS TO CHANGE YOUR LATITUDE
Travellers heading through the Sydney domestic airport will be encouraged to Change their Latitude with a series of window stickers displayed prominently around the terminal. The window stickers feature two new hero brand images and highlight the availability of 60 direct flights between Cairns and Sydney each week. The window stickers will be in the Sydney airport in February and April.

BACKPACKER OPERATORS HIT THE ROAD
TTNQ’s Jana Stankovich and 14 Tropical North Queensland Youth/Adventure Operators have headed off on the Cairns Backpacker Roadshow which will visit key locations along the East Coast of Australia including; Brisbane, Surfers Paradise, Byron Bay and Sydney. They reach their last stop, Melbourne on Thursday 21 February in time for the 2008 Melbourne Adventure Travel and Backpacker Expo. In each stop along the way Tropical North Queensland will be showcased at evening functions attended by all backpacker travel agencies (STA Travel, Backpackers World Travel, Peterpans Adventure Travel etc.) in that area. 

TTNQ / TOTALTRAVEL CAMPAIGN GOES LIVE
TTNQ’s online marketing campaign with TotalTravel is now live. The campaign features a Home Page teaser inviting visitors to “Change their latitude” to Tropical North Queensland and is aimed at promoting business for our Book Tropical Australia (BTA) enabled members.

The site highlights our key experiences:

- Great Barrier Reef

- Tropical Adventure

- World Heritage Rainforest

- Tropical Spas

- Tropical Gulf Savannah

- Tropical Tastes

- Aboriginal Culture

- Cairns – The Tropical Capital

There is also a competition for visitors with over $8, 000 in prizes kindly donated by our members. Click here to view the competition page.

The campaign runs until the end of February. To view the TotalTravel site please click here.

ONLINE BOOKABILITY FOR GREAT TROPICAL DRIVE
TTNQ are updating the Great Tropical Drive website to provide users with a booking option. The drive in the Tropical North Queensland region is shown on the website as three major loops – northern, western and central. The web update will have a new entry page to each of these sub-regions that provides a broad description of each precinct. This page can also host generic POD and VOD casts supplied by, or approved by, the appropriate LTO. Member product (BTA enabled only) from these precincts will be listed under tours, attractions and accommodation at each of these precinct chapter pages. There will also be a ‘Guided Tours from Cairns’ link that will allow users to book any TTNQ member land, air and sea product. Each precinct chapter will also have an area that can be used to promote special events. There is no need for members to provide any additional information at this stage. When the upgrade is close to complete we will have a trial period to iron out any issues before opening it to the consumers – estimated launch date is early April. There will be no charge to members for this service. For more information contact John McIntyre 40151202 or john.mcintyre@tnq.org.au

PLANET SAFE PARTNERSHIP UPDATE
The Planet Safe Partnership program is proceeding well with around 30 products listed or in the process of being listed. The companies are currently working with TTNQ to promote the program directly to consumers or indirectly via wholesalers and retailers. Austravel (UK) recently included a two page spread in their brochure (distribution).

Meetings with Advance Cairns, Cairns Chamber of Commerce, Area Consultative Committee and the Department of Tourism Regional Development and Industry have indicated the program is very attractive to other sustainable industries in the region and could be used as a way of positioning TNQ as a world leading sustainable region – e.g. Planet Safe prawns, coral trout, coffee etc.

John McIntyre recently attended the Tourism and Climate Change Task Force meeting in Canberra. The Department of Climate Change is now gearing up with some useful programs. There is general agreement that there needs to be an umbrella scheme (i.e. approved by government) for climate change initiatives. This is likely to be a strict endorsement scheme under which a small number of approved brands will sit.

PSP is currently working with News Limited in planning a campaign to align their One Degree program with PSP.

TTNQ is investigating a range of options to address management of PSP should it be adopted by other industries or moves outside the region. Advance Cairns support would be appreciated.

RESEARCH PROJECT LAUNCHED
Chairman of the Wet Tropics Management Authority Lt John Grey and Rob Giason got together recently to help launch the project which will see TTNQ and the Alliance for Sustainable Tourism upgrade research capacity so tourism operators have additional information and tools to help in developing, interpreting and presenting nature based tour products. This includes the compilation of a handbook for guides within the World Heritage Wet Tropics.

WELCOME CAIRNS.COM.AU
TTNQ congratulates The Cairns Post on the launch of their new website cairns.com.au and we are working closely with them sharing content between this site and tropicalaustralia.com.au As a long time media sponsor for TTNQ this new era of digital information sharing with The Cairns Post builds on an already successful relationship that has seen the Passport to Cairns publication supporting local tourism product for several years. This publication is also now titled cairns.com.au Together we will explore other opportunities to promote the destination and leverage our brand.

TEAM CAIRNS UK PUSH
Hard work by TTNQ’s Sharyn Brydon & Dion Eades with support from Rhett Lego came to fruition with the Team Cairns campaigns which ran in the Sunday Times Travel Issue published in Britain in December. The feature highlighted key rainforest, reef and indigenous images and information on the variety of tropical experiences on offer in the destination with special Qantas Holiday packages also featured as a call to action for readers to book. Earlier an online campaign run in October & November saw Team Cairns partner with Tailormade Travel to promote the diversity of Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. Another campaign with Trailfinders included a double page spread in the winter edition of their magazine. And in January London commuters were enticed with 1000 tube poster cards and supporting online activity. In March 10 Tropical North Queensland operators will participate in the TTNQ UK Europe mission to follow up on all this activity.

TTNQ WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS

Fuel Creative Design
www.fuelcreativedesign.com
Fuel Creative offers a range of graphic design, branding and advertising services. 
 
Tyto Wetlands Information Centre www.hinchinbrooknq.com.au/
Tyto is a 90 hectare wetland site located in close proximity to the township of Ingham, less than a kilometre from the Bruce Highway.

Little Aussie Bum Pub co
Cairns only cheeky 'Iconic Aussie pub' is centrally located in Cairns CBD, showcasing our proud larrikin pub culture! Good time tunes, fun food and great laughs! Big Aussie meals, extensive bar, crazy staff...groups a specialty! Relax Aussie style and enjoy a laugh in this great atmosphere! Open 7 days till late.

ACCOMMODATION REPORT ONLINE
TTNQ’s Accommodation Report Year Ending September 2007 is now available on www.tropicalaustralia.com.au/corporate  The survey period showed increases in rooms, bed space, occupancy and takings in Tropical North Queensland.

PLENTY OF CRUISE SHIPS IN PORT
The Japanese cruise ship Asuka II docked in Cairns recently, giving its 680 passengers the opportunity to disembark and enjoy some of the many tropical experiences our destination has to offer. The Cairns Port Authority welcomed them with entertainment from The Barbary Coasters and tropical fruit tastings and inbound travel operator JTB Cairns organised various tours including trips on Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, Kuranda Scenic Railway and Great Barrier Reef Helicopters as well as visits to Cairns Tropical Zoo. Several other cruise ships have visited in the past few weeks, with passengers coming ashore to enjoy the region’s tours and attractions.

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IMPORTANT UPCOMING EVENTS

TTNQ INFORMATION SESSIONS
TTNQ is holding information sessions in the following areas to update members on the brand roll out and access to branding tools, famil distribution and participation, recent changes to Book Tropical Australia and the latest from our research department.
MISSION BEACH: Cancelled – Members in this area are welcome to attend one of the other sessions
ATHERTON: 1:00pm 26 February 2008, The Summit Rainforest Retreat. Click here for details
PORT DOUGLAS: 1:00pm 28 February 2008, Mantra Treetops Resort and Spa. Click here for details
CAIRNS & CAIRNS BEACHES: 1:00pm 4 March TTNQ Boardroom. Click here for details
COOKTOWN: 1:00pm 6 March Cook Shire Council Chambers. Click here for details

A – Z of GOING GREEN SEMINAR
1:00 – 5:00pm 27 March 2008 Rydges Tradewinds Hotel Meetings Events Australia will hold a Professional Development Seminar titled A-Z of Going Green featuring guest speakers Elizabeth Rich of the Business Events Council of Australia and TTNQ’s John McIntyre. To register visit: www.meetingsevents.com.au/pd_events.html  For further information phone 07 3286 4977 or Email qld@mea.org.au

BEHIND THE SCENES

• Rob Giason travelled to Melbourne this week for meetings with Jetstar representatives, to join Angela and Johanne at AIME and attend the AACB Board meeting. Earlier in the month he made the 6-monthly presentation to the Cairns Port Authority Board and later this week will be joined by the TTNQ Executive team to present the draft Business Plan to the TTNQ Board. Rob also attended the RTO Manager’s meeting in Brisbane.
• The Domestic & New Zealand TAG meeting and the Youth Adventure TAG meeting were held earlier this month and presentations and minutes from these meetings are now available on www.tropicalaustralia.com.au/corporate
• Dion, Sharyn and Karen have conducted workshops in Palm Cove and Port Douglas to assist operators in those areas to define and market their core branding attributes
• Dion is continuing work on the various upcoming domestic campaigns and Karen has been busy with media covering Carnivale and Fresh TV.
• Donna escorted a group of 20 New Zealand agents to Palm Cove and Port Douglas when they arrived here aboard a P&O cruise ship.
• Harry Niihori is currently in Japan to participate in Tourism Australia’s Japan Australia Mission (JAM) as well as conduct meetings with major wholesalers and airlines, including Qantas, Jetstar and Continental. Following JAM, TTNQ and eight local operators, in conjunction with TQ and Jetstar, will conduct Cairns Regional Seminars in the regional cities of Kagoshima, Kumamoto, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Kanazawa and Nagoya.
• CRCB’s Karen Shaw is also in Japan for JAM 08 promoting the region’s business tourism capacity. Meanwhile Angela & Johanne are in Melbourne for AIME.
• Liz provided a Hot Market Update on the Indian market. Members can access the Summary Report from the recent Queensland on Tour Indian mission is available on www.tropicalaustralia.com.au/corporate
• Niaomi is preparing for the upcoming TTNQ Regional Seminars and continuing with member visits.
• Annie attended the MTSRF meeting and Michelle conducted IPAT training.
• David Rose attended the Cairns Aviation Strategy Group meeting along with TTNQ Board member Rodger Robertson and Cairns Port Authority. He also travelled to Sydney for meetings with Tourism Australia and V3. Back in Cairns David escorted American Airlines Hong Kong-based Regional Director for Asia and the South Pacific, Rick Walker, chose Tropical North Queensland for his Chinese New Year break this year. Top of his to-do list was a Jungle Surfing expedition in the Daintree with Jungle Surfing Canopy Tours. After completing his bird’s eye view of the forest, Rick commented: "It was an excellent afternoon - really well organised and informative. I'd have no hesitation in recommending Jungle Surfing to the world!"

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SEEN IN THE MEDIA

• Port Douglas was the focus of this Sunday Telegraph article.
• The new series of Mercurio’s Menu goes to air this weekend with the episode filmed in Tropical North Queensland scheduled for the weekend of 5 April. Screenings in Sydney are on Sundays at 5:30pm and in Melbourne and Adelaide on Saturdays at 5:30pm. Time slots for Brisbane and Perth are yet to be confirmed.
• The Daily Telegraph featured Kuranda in a recent travel story.
• An article on Atherton appears in the latest edition of The Road Ahead.
• Mercurio’s Menu was the cover story of this week’s Cairns Eye magazine. Filming for a Tropical North Queensland segment of the new series was supported by TTNQ and Jetstar.

• Last weekend's Courier Mail featured the Shangri-l;a Hotel, The Marina Cairns.
  

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