Doulgas Shire Council has agreed to continue funding Tourism Port Douglas and Daintree (TPDD) for the next three years. 

Council decided to maintain the local tourism organisation’s current funding levels of $430,000 per annum at its ordinary meeting yesterday. 

The funding will be reviewed after the first 12 months, in addition to council monitoring TPDD’s key performance indicators in their quarterly reports. 

Douglas Shire mayor Julia Leu said council had full confidence in TPDD’s ability to draw visitors to Port Douglas, which is estimated to derive about 85 per cent of its economy from tourism.

“This decision reflects the importance of tourism to our local economy as well as the close relationship council wants to have with Tourism Port Douglas and Daintree - as a newly deamalgamated council we have a tight budget but we’re glad to be able to commit to those three years of funding because they add certainty,” Cr Leu said. 

“In addition to this funding council is also going to continue working closely with TPDD on events like Carnivale. 

“We’ve got a high level of confidence in TPDD to do the job and bring in the visitors.”

TPDD executive officer Tara Bennett said that she and her team were ‘delighted and heartened’ by the agreement and that it would enable them to keep advertising the region. 

“I think it shows a really strong message that council is willing to commit for three years and support tourism and the economic strength of the region,” she said. 

“We’re looking forward to continuing to promote an all-of-destination message for the region to domestic and international markets. 

The tourism industry in the Douglas Shire is estimated to be worth around $600 million.

In 2013 a survey released by Tourism Research Australia, found domestic visitor numbers increased by

23.8% to 354,000 compared to 286,000 in the year ending 2012 and 240,000 for 2011 in Port Douglas and

Daintree.

As a result of this, domestic nights increased from 1,493,000 in 2012 to 1,723,000 in 2013, recording 15.5%

growth, while the average length of stay was 4.9 nights.

For the same period, international visitors increased by 6000 to top 84,000, a difference of 7.7%.

Showing the greatest growth at 49% was the number of international visitor nights, which rose from 396,000

in 2012 to 590,000 in 2013.

This was due to the increased length of stay for international visitors, which increased by almost two days to

reach seven.