{"id":226424,"date":"2019-01-22T09:00:27","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T23:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=226424"},"modified":"2020-07-25T11:28:08","modified_gmt":"2020-07-25T01:28:08","slug":"tourism-merger-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/01\/22\/tourism-merger-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourism Merger Possible?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The Darling Downs Tourism Board at its formation in 2017 … back row, from left, Tony Heckendorf, Isaac Moody, Eleanor Kratzmann, Russell Peters and David James (absent: Geoff Davenport); sitting, then-CEO Ruth Wetmore and chairman John Wagner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

January 22, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tourism promotion could face another shake-up following reports of discussions between Southern Queensland Country Tourism (SQCT), the privately run Tourism Darling Downs and the State Government.<\/p>\n

Tourism Darling Downs chairman and acting CEO John Wagner has written to members saying he had been approached by the State Government to discuss the future of tourism in the region.<\/p>\n

“It was my suggestion that having two tourism bodies was counter-productive, but I was not prepared to compromise unless there was a wholesale change in the way tourism was being handled in our region,” Mr Wagner wrote.<\/p>\n

He said local councils had also been involved in the discussions.<\/p>\n

Tourism Darling Downs was set up by Mr Wagner in May 2017 after a public falling out between the businessman and the “official” regional tourism organisation, SQCT.<\/p>\n

At the time, Mr Wagner slammed SQCT in the media as an \u201cabsolute joke\u201d and a \u201cdisgrace\u201d, and suggested taxpayers\u2019 and ratepayers\u2019 dollars were not being spent wisely in the region.<\/p>\n

Several South Burnett operators joined the new association and\u00a0Bunya Mountains restaurant proprietor Eleanor Kratzmann was appointed to the Board.<\/p>\n

In February last year, Toowoomba Regional Council voted to join Tourism Darling Downs but also maintained its membership of SQCT.<\/p>\n

Western Downs Council is also a member of both associations.<\/p>\n

In August 2017, South Burnett Regional Council voted to leave SQCT and brought tourism promotion in-house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tourism promotion could face another shake-up following reports of discussions between Southern Queensland Country Tourism (SQCT), the privately run Tourism Darling Downs and the State Government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":179644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,3,10],"tags":[1130],"yoast_head":"\nTourism Merger Possible? - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tourism promotion could face another shake-up following reports of discussions between Southern Queensland Country Tourism (SQCT), the privately run Tourism Darling Downs and the State Government.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/01\/22\/tourism-merger-possible\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tourism Merger Possible? - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tourism promotion could face another shake-up following reports of discussions between Southern Queensland Country Tourism (SQCT), the privately run Tourism Darling Downs and the State Government.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/01\/22\/tourism-merger-possible\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-21T23:00:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-07-25T01:28:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/20170529ltoboard.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"385\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/01\/22\/tourism-merger-possible\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/01\/22\/tourism-merger-possible\/\",\"name\":\"Tourism Merger Possible? - southburnett.com.au\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-21T23:00:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-25T01:28:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\"},\"description\":\"Tourism promotion could face another shake-up following reports of discussions between Southern Queensland Country Tourism (SQCT), the privately run Tourism Darling Downs and the State Government.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/01\/22\/tourism-merger-possible\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/\",\"name\":\"southburnett.com.au\",\"description\":\"Kingaroy and South Burnett News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\",\"name\":\"Anne Miller\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tourism Merger Possible? - southburnett.com.au","description":"Tourism promotion could face another shake-up following reports of discussions between Southern Queensland Country Tourism (SQCT), the privately run Tourism Darling Downs and the State Government.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/01\/22\/tourism-merger-possible\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tourism Merger Possible? - southburnett.com.au","og_description":"Tourism promotion could face another shake-up following reports of discussions between Southern Queensland Country Tourism (SQCT), the privately run Tourism Darling Downs and the State Government.","og_url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/01\/22\/tourism-merger-possible\/","og_site_name":"southburnett.com.au","article_published_time":"2019-01-21T23:00:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-07-25T01:28:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"620","height":"385","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/20170529ltoboard.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Miller","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/01\/22\/tourism-merger-possible\/","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/01\/22\/tourism-merger-possible\/","name":"Tourism Merger Possible? - southburnett.com.au","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-01-21T23:00:27+00:00","dateModified":"2020-07-25T01:28:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae"},"description":"Tourism promotion could face another shake-up following reports of discussions between Southern Queensland Country Tourism (SQCT), the privately run Tourism Darling Downs and the State Government.","inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2019\/01\/22\/tourism-merger-possible\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/","name":"southburnett.com.au","description":"Kingaroy and South Burnett News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae","name":"Anne Miller","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226424"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226424"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267129,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226424\/revisions\/267129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}