"We need to be China-ready": Chamber calls for Aquis preparation
"We need to be China-ready": Chamber calls for Aquis preparation
Monday November 3 2014, 2:15pm
The Douglas region needs to become “China ready” ahead of the development of the Aquis mega-resort, according to the Douglas Chamber of Commerce.
At the Chamber’s annual general meeting on Thursday, the changes and impact of the planned resort were laid out in startling terms.
Chamber secretary Liz Ross recently attended a special meeting of the Mareeba Chamber of Commerce where Aquis representative Dan Bender said that the first stage of Aquis would require 63,000 meals per week, and by the time Stage 2 had been completed in 2020, a whopping 189,000 meals per week.
Critically, the majority of these meals will be aimed at the Asian market, meaning there will be a huge local demand for Asian staples like pork, chicken and duck as opposed to more traditional European fare.
Speaking personally from Sydney , Ms Ross also said the Cairns and Douglas regions needed investment in critical transport and water infrastructure to avoid disaster.
“We’ve got to understand that this is not just going to be like a new Sheraton or other resort - Aquis is bigger than anything we’ve ever seen before,” Ms Ross said.
“I thought to myself - if I can’t get from Port Douglas to Cairns Airport without getting stuck in traffic at Smithfield, how are we supposed to handle hundreds of thousands of extra tourists in a few years?
“We’re going to need a better road system and a better water system - and now, not in 10 years, because personally right now I don’t think we are ready for it.”
At the Douglas Chamber of Commerce AGM, president Phoebe Kitto also discussed the need for Chinese-language courses in Cairns and Port Douglas.
“If we can have businesses that have someone on staff that know at least at a few basic words of Chinese it’s going to make things that much smoother for them,” she said.
“It definitely would be good to see Chinese-language courses coming up in the schools and for adults in the same way we saw for Japanese earlier," she said.