By STEVE GRAY
BRANDING, shared ideas and networking were very much on the agenda as local tourism practitioners met with industry experts at the RACQ Southern Queensland Tourism Industry Conference in Stanthorpe.
Always with the customer in mind, the conference ranged over topics as diverse as event tourism, social media, regional food, creating memorable experiences and of course, drive tourism.
Tourism Minister Jann Stuckey opened the conference at the Queensland College of Wine Tourism, just over a year after she launched the Southern Queensland Country Regional Tourism Organisation.
This combined the former Southern Downs and Granite Belt regional tourism organisations with those from Toowoomba Golden West and the South Burnett.
“The conference is the ideal forum for Southern Queensland tourism operators to learn about industry trends and embrace marketing and development opportunities to help grow the state’s tourism industry,” MS Stuckey said.
This is in line with the vision of “doubling annual overnight visitor expenditure from $15 billion to $30 billion by 2020″, she said.
“This Super RTO – as I called it – has grown in strength since then and has become a strong advocate for your region.”
Warwick Tourism and Events CEO Tracy Vellacott, said the conference held some particularly relevant messages for Southern Downs operators in view of the current tourism unrest.
“Key to this was Mary Carroll’s view that visitors don’t care about local government boundaries or Local Tourism Organisation boundaries and that disunity in a region equals death,” Mrs Vellacott said.
“I couldn’t agree more. If we don’t start to work smarter and more cooperatively then we will never get a greater slice of the tourism pie. “Doing the same old thing in the same old way will not allow us to reach the new targets set by this State Government.
“I also loved the view that it is important to build a formidable tourism foundation for the region and that if you are smart, you will hitch your wagon to that something bigger,” Mrs Vellacott said.
“It was acknowledged that there have been a few hiccups in development of our new RTO but when you are advocating for a region twice the size of Tasmania, you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”
Local operator Trudy Grant of Killarney View Cabins praised the conference experience.
“The conference has been fabulous, with great speakers and everything has run on time,” she said.
“The food, staff and students – just the friendliness and the attention we’re getting. It’s a fantastic venue for a conference.”
