Council to highlight iconic Burdekin events

Council will help expose iconic Burdekin events to a wider audience from 2019 by funding the development of a dedicated Destination Events Calendar.

This calendar, which will be separate to Council’s Community Events Calendar, will focus on showcasing the region’s hallmark and unique events.

Burdekin Shire Council Mayor Lyn McLaughlin said Council had acknowledged the need to focus on event diversification and development in order to grow the local visitor economy.

“In August of this year, Council adopted the Burdekin Tourism Strategy, which established a road map for unlocking the region’s tourism potential and for unlocking sustainable opportunities across the region,” Cr McLaughlin said.

“In preparing this strategy, it was discovered that in 2017 only 28% of visitors to the Burdekin stayed longer than one day.

“We have so many great, quirky, unique and exciting events happening throughout our Shire every year.

“We want to show potential visitors that there are plenty of great reasons to stay overnight in the Burdekin.”

The calendar is being created as part of a wider purpose-built tourism website designed to drive visitors to the region.

“Not only will Council promote hallmark events through the Destination Events Calendar on Council’s impending tourism website, we will also produce flyers, brochures and many other documents which will be available at regional expos and Visitor Information Centres, reaching thousands of potential visitors.”

Cr Lyn McLaughlin said all businesses, community groups and sporting groups who stage events in the Burdekin are encouraged to submit their event for consideration.

Initial closing date for applications to be considered for the online Destination Calendar of Events and physical documents is Monday 26 November, however applications may be accepted after this date for the online calendar only. Applications are available from Council’s website www.burdekin.qld.gov.au or by emailing.

Council is also helping local tourism vendors improve their digital marketing by hosting two Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW) workshops on Thursday 29 November.

The ADTW is Australia’s national tourism database and distribution platform which represents over 40,000 small and medium sized tourism products and destinations.

This platform then feeds to State and Territory Tourism Organisations’ consumer websites, the Australia.com website and through ATDW’s extensive network of over 200 tourism distributors.

Council’s workshops will explain how to effectively list events or products through the ADTW website.

Workshops will be held at Council Chambers (145 Young Street, Ayr) at 10am-11am and 5:30pm-6:30pm on Thursday 29 November.

To register for either of these workshops emailwith your preferred session time.