'Champagne brand' needed for Douglas ahead of Aquis construction: chamber head
'Champagne brand' needed for Douglas ahead of Aquis construction: chamber head
Friday May 30 2014, 5:00pm
The head of Port Douglas’s Chamber of Commerce has said town needs to become a ‘champagne brand’ to capitalise on the construction of the Aquis mega-casino in Cairns.
Chamber president Pheobe Kitto (pictured) said Douglas has a chance to capture the wealthiest section of the market Aquis is expected to bring to Cairns but must invest in upgrading facilities to do so.
The proposed Yorkeys Knob casino-resort was promised a gaming license on Monday by deputy premier Jeff Seeney, provided it meets environmental and planning guidelines.
The license was seen as one of the last few obstacles in the path of Aquis’s creator, Chinese billionaire Tony Fung, to proceeding with the project.
Aquis is expected to bring hundreds of thousands of middle-class Chinese tourists to Cairns a year and Ms Kitto said Port Douglas is perfectly poised to capture the richest of them.
“Aquis is going to be so big, it’s hard for us to get our heads around - it’s a very positive development for the economy of the region,” Ms Kitto said to The Newsport.
“If Port Douglas plays its cards right we should really be able to capitalise on it in a big way.
“The Chamber believes that we should be positioning Port Douglas as a champagne brand.”
To achieve this, Ms Kitto said most aspects of the town need to be upgraded, including public areas like parks as well as the major hotels revamping their services.
“A lot of the accommodation providers in town are already upgrading their facilities to prepare,” she said.
“We need to spend money on this too - the town is looking tired and we need to be fairly aggressive in pepping it back up.
“We need a united, loud voice to start asking for any money that’s out there either in the budget or through State and Federal grants for development.
Construction on the inital stages of Aquis is expected to start after the 2015 wet season.
Not everyone is keen on the idea, however - community groups like Aquis Aware continue to voice their opposition to the developmnent, citing concerns over the environmental and social impacts the building of a massive casino in Far North could cause.