Tourism body set for five-year funding agreement

Published: 09 September 2020. (Note: information was correct at date of publication but may have since been changed or superseded.)

The region’s peak tourism marketing group is set to secure a $16.5 million funding agreement with Cairns Regional Council.

The proposed five-year funding agreement outlines the Council allocation of $2.9 million this financial year (2020-21) to Tropical Tourism North Queensland, which will increase to $3.4 million for the subsequent four years.

Council works in partnership with TTNQ, whose role it is to facilitate sustainable economic growth in the tourism sector and the development of broader opportunities for the tourism industry. Tourism is the largest industry sector in Cairns in terms of both economic value added and jobs supported and has also been one of the sectors hardest hit by COVID-19.

The Council funding would be utilised to support the recovery of the region’s tourism economy through investment in destination marketing and industry development.

In 2018-19 financial year, tourism contributed about $1.1 billion (13.5%) to the Cairns LGA’s economy and supported an estimated 12,286 jobs (8,268 direct and 4,018 in-direct), representing 14.9% of the total Cairns workforce.

* This resolution from today’s Governance and Economics Committee meeting needs to be ratified at the next Ordinary Meeting of Council, to be held on 23 September 2020.