April 20, 2018
The frosts start arriving after Anzac Day … and so do the tourists, especially the grey nomads from down south searching for warmer climes.
Winter has always been prime time for local tourism operators so this year the South Burnett Regional Council decided to officially declare the season “open”.
Cr Danita Potter made the declaration at the third “South Burnett Unpacked” tourism networking event to be organised by Council’s Economic Development Unit over the past six months.
The first was held at Yallakool Tourist Park last November; and the second at the Bunya Mountains in February.
The third was at Kingaroy Town Hall on Thursday.
Tourism operators manned a series of stalls inside the hall, chatting and “networking” with fellow operators and distributing flyers and maps.
Members of the public were also invited to attend.
Cr Potter reminded the small crowd present at the opening they were all tourism ambassadors for the South Burnett.
She said people could do their part as an ambassador by simply “liking” or sharing Facebook pages and posts, for example, the pages for the Blackbutt Avocado Festival and BaconFest.
“If you’re not on Facebook, tell your friends,” she said.
“Tell them how wonderful it is that you can come down and eat bacon all weekend and there’ll be no scales around anywhere!”
She also suggested South Burnett residents take their visiting friends on a picnic to one of the scenic spots in the region. To get ideas, they should also drop into one of the Visitor Information Centres.
SBRC Senior Economic Development Officer Craig Tunley said the Tourism Unpacked events were a great opportunity for tourism businesses to form new partnerships.
“Take your time to explore (the exhibits),” he said.
There were also a series of presentations in the Supper Room by local businesses and events, including The Sauce Man, The Peanut Van, Waterhole Rocks, the Nanango Country Music Muster, Blackbutt Avocado Festival, Murgon Dairy Museum, Jacaranda Tea Rooms and the Kingaroy Observatory.
New businesses, Hidden Gold Homestead, from Moffatdale; and Push Pull Marketing (Sheena Lindholm), also shared their information.
Brisbane Valley Rail Trail ambassadors and representatives from the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse also spoke.
Cr Potter should be aware that all benefits from Tourism launches will be lost if hard working volunteers at VICs hand out publications that have errors, standout mistakes or omissions.
In October 2017 I wrote to the CEO outlining mistakes in brochures and signs and to date have not been afforded a reply. This is a shame as I wrote in good faith with the interests of South Burnett at heart.