Tourism Association May Wind Up Soon

Jayne Deshon, Bill Jackson, Bernie Cooper, Cathy Davis and Michael Beohm — FLASHBACK: Outgoing SBTA Treasurer Jayne Deshon, facilitator Dr Bill Jackson, President Bernie Cooper, outgoing President Cathy Davis, and Vice-President Michael Beohm at the SBTA’s 2013 AGM when the group was pulled back from the brink … but now it may be going for good

July 2, 2015

by Dafyd Martindale

The South Burnett Tourism Association (SBTA) may close down in a fortnight, leaving the region’s tourist operators without a voice in the way the region is promoted to potential visitors in the future.

The group will be holding a meeting at Kingaroy’s 1913 Council Chambers on Tuesday, July 14, at 5:30pm to vote on whether or not to wind the SBTA up and transfer its assets to a like-minded organisation.

The SBTA has represented the interests of South Burnett tourism industry operators for almost two decades.

However it has been unable to expand its membership over the past few years.

In 2013 the organisation faced oblivion when outgoing president Cathy Davis said the SBTA was struggling to form a committee.

That year the group’s Annual General Meeting had to be postponed a month because it was unable to even muster a quorum.

In her 2012-13 President’s Report, Mrs Davis said strained relationships with the Regional Tourism Organisation, along with the move from the former Fraser Coast RTO to the Toowoomba-based Southern Queensland Country RTO, had played a big part in disengaging members.

Tourism operators were also heavily impacted by the 2011 floods, the high Australian dollar and other blows which had hit regional tourism hard.

The South Burnett Wine Industry Association (SBWIA) – unwilling to see the group disappear – offered to take the SBTA under its wing as an industry sub-committee.

But at the Association’s 2013 AGM, a new committee was formed which rejected the SBWIA’s offer and promised instead to refocus the organisation on smaller, more local projects.

In the year that followed, the new group successfully trialled a Tourism Ambassador program in Wondai, led a push for better tourism signage for the region, and slashed SBTA membership fees to encourage local operators to get involved with the group again.

However, the economic impacts flowing from the 2012 drought and 2013 floods seem to have proven too much, with the group unable to muster sufficient volunteers to effect new projects or fill vacancies on its executive.

The meeting on July 14 will be open to the public, but only current financial members will be able to vote on the wind-up resolutions.