Funding for tourism marketing is currently under review by local and state government, and while newly elected Mayor Bob Manning has committed to continue funding tourism bodies such as Tourism  Port Douglas & Daintree, how that funding will be distributed is not yet clear.

"I can see it continuing into the future. When you say "in its current form" I don't know," Mayor Manning said.

"From what I can see, Queensland is losing share against NSW and Victoria. NSW and Victoria, in the last few years, have outperformed Queensland.

"Queensland has always been the jewel in the crown when it comes to tourism in Australia so we've come off the boil a bit."

He said it was important for the region to remain aligned with Tourism Queensland and the marketing strategies they put in place.

"Tourism Queensland (TQ) is doing some soul searching at the moment as to what the strategy should be going forward. I believe there are some changes to be made.

"Whatever they determine as the go forward strategy then we need to be linked into that. It's a case of TQ, TTNQ (Tourism Tropical North Queensland), the LTO's (Tourism Port Douglas & Daintree) and businesses below that working together.

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"Should the council be involved in tourism marketing? Yes. Are we doing enough? Probably not."

Mayor Manning said measuring the results of investments into organisations was an unavoidable part of doing business, despite the potential reluctance of the funding recipient.

"When you went to school your performance was measured by exams, it was for me anyway. Every term a result would come out.

"Personally I used to hate that because you're always put under pressure. None of us ever like being measured.

"I sometimes think too when you talk about making contributions to organisations they would prefer that you just trust them that they'll deliver. But in effect if you don't measure you don't know.

"The measurement is not the be all and end all, but it's a part of it. You can't get away from that," he said.

He added that after travelling extensively around the world, there is no place like home.

"This region has lost none of what it was that made it attractive to visitors before. Whether it's the rainforest or the reef or the mountains behind us there's nowhere else like this.

"Port Douglas is special, Palm Cove is special, the Daintree is special. The diversity and the area we've got is quite phenomenal.

"We're blessed with the product we've got to work with, I've no doubt about that."

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