{"id":170822,"date":"2017-02-23T22:58:49","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T12:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=170822"},"modified":"2020-09-22T13:30:06","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T03:30:06","slug":"mp-encourages-tourism-delegates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2017\/02\/23\/mp-encourages-tourism-delegates\/","title":{"rendered":"MP Encourages Tourism Delegates"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Finalists in the Chairman’s Award … Simon and Jo Berry, from Kingsley Grove<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

February 23, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tourism Minister Kate Jones reassured the delegates at this week’s Southern Queensland Country Tourism conference in Kingaroy that the State Government was behind them in their efforts.<\/p>\n

The conference was held over two days at Kingaroy Town Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, where 90 delegates and tourism operators from the SQCT region heard Ms Jones and a range of guest speakers.<\/p>\n

“We want you to grow,” she said. “We understand clearly that tourism means jobs.”<\/p>\n

Ms Jones came to Kingaroy to officially open the conference.<\/p>\n

She urged the tourism operators to work together: “We drive results when we work collaboratively.”<\/p>\n

And the aim was to leave visitors with an “emotional experience”, especially one that they can share online.<\/p>\n

Ms Jones said there also had to be a change of narrative about tourism not being a long-term job choice.<\/p>\n

She said the Young Tourism initiative, being run in conjunction with Tourism Queensland, was all about going into schools to talk to students about tourism as a career.<\/p>\n

“We are very fortunate to have such a strong RTO (Regional Tourism Organisation) network in Queensland,” Mr Jones said.<\/p>\n

“We have come a long way as an industry.<\/p>\n

“The collaboration, the sharing of ideas, the cohesion we have today has never been better.”<\/p>\n

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Tourism Minister Kate Jones, South Burnett Mayor Keith Campbell and Southern Queensland Country Tourism CEO Mary-Clare Power at the SQCT tourism conference in Kingaroy on Tuesday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Delegates listen to the official opening speech by Tourism Minister Kate Jones on Monday morning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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SQCT Chairman Dr Jane Summers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SQCT chairman\u00a0Dr Jane Summers also spoke at the conference, referring to recent criticism of the organisation which, she said,\u00a0had been “useful to future planning”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr Summers said the participation and partnership of tourism operators and Local and State Government was crucial to the success of marketing the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe board acknowledges that the recent conversation about the importance of tourism to our region is timely and it highlights the opportunity to talk about funding models, development opportunities and the importance of partnerships and relationships to the future of tourism,\u201d Dr Summers said.<\/p>\n

She said criticisms of the current funding model and RTO model for regional tourism had highlighted important questions for both State and Local Government around the sustainable future for the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe board fully supports the organisation, who are doing a great job in marketing the region and achieving growth with the resources available to them. Be assured however that the organisation is not resting on the good results achieved to date, but are looking keenly to the future,” she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue our work in broadening our focus to the international markets of New Zealand and Europe, and interstate markets who can now access our region via direct flights into Wellcamp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Footnote:<\/strong> Dr Summers was referring to recent criticism of the\u00a0organisation\u00a0by\u00a0Wellcamp Airport developer John Wagner. Mr Wagner organised a meeting of tourism operators at Wellcamp Airport on Thursday who discussed forming a breakaway tourism association from SQCT.<\/p>\n