by Mat Churchill


The Daintree region is being represented at a series of caravan and camping travel expos in Australia and New Zealand, with today's Adelaide show being the first.

Each expo runs over several days and are targeted to self-drive holiday makers and outdoor leisure enthusiasts who can find out about the latest product releases and accessories, new technologies and outdoor activity equipment, locations to visit and what to do when they're there.

Vince O'Flaherty, the Daintree's region's show coordinator, said the Daintree's involvement is a great opportunity to showcase the area.

"The beauty about these shows is that there's no international product in them so we're not competing against other exotic destinations. They're about people who are actually out driving around the country or in some cases they use it as a fly and flop."

Pro Active Marketing's Neville Dunn will represent the Daintree at five of the eight shows including one in Hamilton, New Zealand.

"Neville has worked for operators in the region here over many years and he's been doing these shows for about 15 years. He's always very busy on his stands because of the range of product he looks after," Mr O'Flaherty said.

The Daintree's representation at the shows will see the region's three tourism groups, Daintree Marketing Co-op, Daintree Coast Tourism and Tourism Daintree Region, work together for the benefit of the area in an apparently rare display of cooperation.

"I've gone out myself to talk to each of the groups and work as a facilitator because I believe we need a united front for this project and I would hope that we could do it for other projects also in the future," said Mr O'Flaherty.

"20, 21 years ago we used to target these show big time and it has sort of been ignored for quite a few years except for individual operators that have gone out and done their own thing in conjunction with people like Neville Dunn."

Mr O'Flaherty said around $6,000 is being spent among the tourism groups to participate in the caravan and camping shows which are expected to attract over 450,000 visitors.

"You've got to be proactive out there otherwise we get left behind by every other region around the place. . . It's about communication, you need to be in their face."

Meanwhile, Caravanning Queensland is keen to be a leader in returning tourists to the Sunshine State.

Caravanning Queensland's chief executive Ron Chapman said the caravanning and camping market is a huge economic force.

"Road travellers are the lifeblood of tourism in many areas and are worth hundreds of millions of dollars to our economy. Caravanning and camping is estimated to be worth $5 billion to the national economy, and a large proportion of this is spent here in Queensland."

Caravanning Queensland will also attend the caravan and camping travel shows.