DEDG releases second report extract
Wednesday October 23 2013
Boost destination marketer funding: DEDG
Queensland may be the sunshine state, but recent tourism figures reveal more Australians would rather holiday in Victoria.
The Roy Morgan Holiday Tracking Survey, released earlier this month, found 40 per cent of almost 20,000 respondents wanted to take a vacation in Victoria within the next two years, knocking former favourite Queensland (39 per cent) into second spot. New South Wales placed third.
“Over the past five years, there has been a decline in the proportion of Australians who would like to take a holiday in Queensland,” said Jane Ianniello, International Director of Tourism, Travel & Leisure, Roy Morgan Research.
“Key Queensland destinations such as the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Tropical North Queensland are facing stiff price and product competition from a multitude of very affordable overseas beach and island destinations.
“Meanwhile, Melbourne’s increasing popularity among Australian holidaymakers has meant that Victoria has held its own over the past five years as a desirable holiday destination.
Read the full Roy Morgan report 
here.
The news comes as the Douglas Economic Development Group (DEDG) distributed its second report extract, comparing the region’s spend on tourism promotion with competitors and pushing Council candidates to prioritise funding.
As The Newsport reported last week, the DEDG is releasing key findings from its landmark economic strategy report, to provide residents and the business community with an overview of our current economic climate and recommendations moving forward.
The report identified the size of the tourism and cane industries in Douglas, and demonstrated the region’s dependence on tourism - over 90 per cent of economic activity.
“The fuel of the Douglas region is tourism,” said DEDG member Gerry Ireland.
“Take away that appeal or allow promotion and marketing to diminish or lapse, and the employment and overall financial livelihood of at least 80 per cent of the families/residents in the region would be fundamentally jeopardised or lost altogether.
“The appeal of the Douglas region depends on our tourism product and marketing competing successfully with other domestic and wider Pacific and Asian tourism hot spot areas, such as the Whitsundays, Noosa, Kangaroo Island, Tasmania, and Margaret River.”
Mr Ireland said the DEDG compared local council funding for destination marketers with total tourism revenue among Douglas and its major competitors.
It found the Douglas region’s council provides significantly less funding to Tourism Port Douglas Daintree (on a percentage of revenue generated from tourism basis).
“Our rank in the class is bottom by a long way,” he said. “In fact, the council’s support of TPDD has remained static at between $420,000.00 and $430,000 annually since 2005.”
Mr Ireland said it was unacceptable that Council didn’t increase destination marketing funding during the town’s lean tourism years, and the community cannot rely upon the “’big end of town’ to step up” with marketing to ensure the region remains competitive.
“The Douglas region, via the new council, must find the money to properly resource our destination marketer, Tourism Port Douglas Daintree."
