*Check against delivery*
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a pleasure to celebrate the latest phase in one of the great tourism success stories in Queensland’s history.
O’Reilly’s is a local institution, and these new facilities will give diners an even better experience of seeing the Great Dividing Range and Lamington National Park.
As many as 50 guests at a time will enjoy dining in this spectacular rainforest setting – the only attraction of its kind in south-east Queensland.
This year marks 100 years since the O’Reilly family first arrived in this area and they have continued to develop a world class eco-tourism experience.
By refreshing your product, you demonstrate the importance of growing yield and profitability by encouraging visitors to stay longer and spend more.
And that, in a nutshell, is what TQUAL Grants is all about.
Alongside the project we launch today, these grants help almost 70 innovative new projects throughout Australia.
We have invested over $8 million to date, including the $70,000 TQUAL grant for this particular project.
That financial support across Australia is bolstered by a further $40 million announced at last year’s election.
Over the next four years, TQUAL Grants will continue to assist Australian tourism businesses to bring innovative new products and services to market.
But TQUAL Grants is just part of a bigger picture for tourism in the Gold Coast region.
Tourism is not always an industry for the faint of heart.
This is my first visit to Queensland since the floods (and the cyclone more recently.)
Natural disasters remind us that tourism operators can often be the first to lose business in a crisis.
But they can also be the first to benefit from the rebound.
And those benefits reach out beyond the tourism industry into regional economies like this one.
O’Reilly’s is a good example of widening the scope of tourism on the Gold Coast, beyond sand and shopping.
Eco-tourism attracts new types of visitor, looking for new things to experience.
Remember nearly half of all tourism-related businesses in the Gold Coast region employ fewer than 20 people.
These are precisely the kind of companies that can innovate, diversify and adapt to new opportunities such as eco-tourism.
The Gold Coast region has a lot to gain from innovation like this.
Already, about ten million visitors a year come here.
Between them, they spent more than four-and-a-half billion dollars last financial year.
Greater diversity fosters greater economic security.
A growing challenge for our industry is to ensure that Australian tourism stands out from the crowd.
As many of you will be aware, the Oprah Australia specials recently screened in the United States.
With an audience measured in tens of millions, the exposure is priceless.
On average, a 60 second ‘prime time’ advertisement slot in the United States is worth over half a million dollars.
With the Australian episodes running at around four hours in total, the specials would be worth almost $150 million if we paid for equivalent advertising.
This represents an exceptional return on an initial investment of $1.8 million from the Australian Government through Tourism Australia.
So in this regard, the campaign has been an unqualified success, and the signs are positive that it has the potential to be one of Australia’s most successful campaigns ever.
In the coming months and years we will be closely watching international arrival numbers to see how well the campaign translates to an upturn in visitors.
As a government we understand that in addition to advertising it is important that Australian tourism has opportunities to build networks in developing markets.
Australia’s international visitor markets are in the midst of a significant shift.
With a burgeoning middle class in Asia with access to disposable income, we are seeing new tourism consumers enter the international tourism marketplace.
So as these people look to travel, we need to ensure they choose Australia.
And we have been proactive in getting these new visitors to our shores.
Australia and New Zealand were the first western countries to be granted Approved Destination Status, enabling Chinese visitors to travel to Australia as part of group packages.
The Australian Government streamlined the administrative arrangements for the ADS scheme in 2010 with a range of reforms to ensure Chinese tourists receive a quality Australian tourism experience — and last year we committed a further four million dollars to guarantee the program’s future for another four years.
Where we position Australian tourism in the future is vital if we are to adapt to this changing marketplace.
And this is something the Australian Government is continuing to address through the National Long-Term Tourism Strategy.
We are focussed on lifting the productivity of the industry.
By directly addressing the barriers to industry growth like investment and skills shortages which have held us back, we are unlocking productivity throughout the tourism supply chain.
We’ve adopted a broad focus, applying commonsense business and economic principles to the portfolio.
The goal is to ensure the Australian tourism industry is better prepared to remain resilient against external factors such as natural disasters – a point driven home in the wake of the recent floods here in Queensland.
Over the coming years of reconstruction it will be more important than ever to support our tourism industry in its rebuild, to provide Queenslanders with jobs and careers to assist them return to their normal lives.
The Australian Government, in partnership with the Queensland Government, announced on 28 January it will create a $10 million Tourism Industry Support Package to provide a vital boost for Queensland’s tourism industry.
The support package, funded $5 million each by the Australian Government and the Queensland Government, will include domestic and international marketing to assure all visitors that many of Queensland’s most iconic destinations are largely unaffected by the floods.
This marketing will further grow Queensland’s rich tourism profile.
The package will also incorporate other tourism industry support measures, including industry development, to capitalise on what was learnt from the floods regarding managing expectations and reputations of those unaffected areas which experienced lost trade.
This will fast-track elements of the National Long-Term Tourism Strategy relating to industry resilience.
To oversee implementation, a joint body is being set up including Tourism Queensland, the Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation, my own Department and Tourism Australia.
The support of local communities and successful planning of operators like O’Reilly’s will go a long way to ensuring Queensland maintains its place among Australia’s top tourism destinations.
I congratulate O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat for the successful application for funding and I am pleased to open the Moonlight Crag Dining Deck.
Thank you