Published Thursday, 04 December, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Minister for Tourism, Regional Development and Industry
The Honourable Desley Boyle
Gold Coast Tourism receives $75,500 State Government Christmas present
Gold Coast Tourism will receive a special funding grant of $75,500 to look at developing a bike sharing program and a series of walking trails connecting the hinterland with the city, Tourism Minister Desley Boyle announced today.
The grant, part of $1 million in State Government funding to the state’s 14 regional tourism organisations, will be used to further develop a program whereby tourists pick up a bicycle on one part of the Coast and drop it off at another.
The funding will also be used to prepare a feasibility study into developing 15 walking trails from hinterland areas such as Springbrook to the Coast.
“These funds will allow Gold Coast Tourism to look into the viability of two major outdoor activity projects which will potentially offer new tourism opportunities for the city,” Ms Boyle said.
“The Gold Coast already has some fantastic tourism product but both government and industry need to continue to raise the bar by looking for new opportunities and better ways of doing things.”
Ms Boyle said in the year to June 30 2008, 849,000 international and 3.4 million domestic visitors spent time on the Gold Coast.
Of these, 2.1 million domestic and 674,000 international visitors came specifically on holiday.
“Overnight visitors spent more than $4 billion on the Gold Coast, making tourism one of the key economic drivers for the region,” she said.
“This is proof of how important it is for the local tourism industry to look for ways improve their operations and develop fresh, new product,” Ms Boyle said.
“The $1 million in grant funding is a State Government commitment to fund tourism development initiatives regional tourism organisations would otherwise be unable to undertake.”
Ms Boyle said regional tourism organisations across the state would use their allocations for a range of projects from new product feasibility studies to industry education programs.
“This funding is part of the State Government’s Queensland Tourism Strategy commitment to an additional $4 million in funding over four years for regional tourism organisations,” she said.
“Competition for the tourist dollar is increasingly fierce and it’s important for destinations to constantly look at ways to improve their visitor experience – be it investigating new product opportunities, increasing customer service levels or providing business advice and support to operators,” she said.
“I was pleased to see so many high-quality submissions and look forward to seeing these projects come to fruition.”
Further information:
Minister’s office – 3225 1005 or 0419 025 326
Tourism Queensland – 3535 5010
The grant, part of $1 million in State Government funding to the state’s 14 regional tourism organisations, will be used to further develop a program whereby tourists pick up a bicycle on one part of the Coast and drop it off at another.
The funding will also be used to prepare a feasibility study into developing 15 walking trails from hinterland areas such as Springbrook to the Coast.
“These funds will allow Gold Coast Tourism to look into the viability of two major outdoor activity projects which will potentially offer new tourism opportunities for the city,” Ms Boyle said.
“The Gold Coast already has some fantastic tourism product but both government and industry need to continue to raise the bar by looking for new opportunities and better ways of doing things.”
Ms Boyle said in the year to June 30 2008, 849,000 international and 3.4 million domestic visitors spent time on the Gold Coast.
Of these, 2.1 million domestic and 674,000 international visitors came specifically on holiday.
“Overnight visitors spent more than $4 billion on the Gold Coast, making tourism one of the key economic drivers for the region,” she said.
“This is proof of how important it is for the local tourism industry to look for ways improve their operations and develop fresh, new product,” Ms Boyle said.
“The $1 million in grant funding is a State Government commitment to fund tourism development initiatives regional tourism organisations would otherwise be unable to undertake.”
Ms Boyle said regional tourism organisations across the state would use their allocations for a range of projects from new product feasibility studies to industry education programs.
“This funding is part of the State Government’s Queensland Tourism Strategy commitment to an additional $4 million in funding over four years for regional tourism organisations,” she said.
“Competition for the tourist dollar is increasingly fierce and it’s important for destinations to constantly look at ways to improve their visitor experience – be it investigating new product opportunities, increasing customer service levels or providing business advice and support to operators,” she said.
“I was pleased to see so many high-quality submissions and look forward to seeing these projects come to fruition.”
Further information:
Minister’s office – 3225 1005 or 0419 025 326
Tourism Queensland – 3535 5010