Published Thursday, 04 December, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Minister for Tourism, Regional Development and Industry
The Honourable Desley Boyle
Brisbane Marketing receives $79,000 State Government Christmas present
Brisbane Marketing will receive a special funding grant of $79,000 to further investigate the viability of a high-quality tourism experience at Mt Coot-tha and a new Moreton Bay ferry terminal, Tourism Minister Desley Boyle announced today.
The grant, part of $1 million in State Government funding allocated to the state’s 14 regional tourism organisations, will be used to look at the feasibility of developing the two projects, which were recently announced as part of the Brisbane Regional Tourism Investment and Infrastructure Plan.
“These funds will allow Brisbane Marketing to conduct in-depth feasibility studies into developing these two ’wish list’ projects which will potentially offer new tourism opportunities for the city,” Ms Boyle said.
“Brisbane 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, 897,000 international and almost 4.6 million domestic visitors spent time in Brisbane.
“Overnight visitors spent more than $4 billion in Brisbane, making tourism one of the key economic drivers for the region,” she 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.
“Regional tourism organisations across the state will use their allocations for a range of projects from new product feasibility studies to industry education programs.”
Ms Boyle said the funding was part of the State Government’s Queensland Tourism Strategy commitment to an additional $4 million in funding over four years for regional tourism organisations.
“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 allocated to the state’s 14 regional tourism organisations, will be used to look at the feasibility of developing the two projects, which were recently announced as part of the Brisbane Regional Tourism Investment and Infrastructure Plan.
“These funds will allow Brisbane Marketing to conduct in-depth feasibility studies into developing these two ’wish list’ projects which will potentially offer new tourism opportunities for the city,” Ms Boyle said.
“Brisbane 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, 897,000 international and almost 4.6 million domestic visitors spent time in Brisbane.
“Overnight visitors spent more than $4 billion in Brisbane, making tourism one of the key economic drivers for the region,” she 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.
“Regional tourism organisations across the state will use their allocations for a range of projects from new product feasibility studies to industry education programs.”
Ms Boyle said the funding was part of the State Government’s Queensland Tourism Strategy commitment to an additional $4 million in funding over four years for regional tourism organisations.
“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