Local receives $200 voucher from Premier

TOURISM

Howard Salkow

Senior Journalist

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Port Douglas local Sarah Woods is one of the Cairns Holiday Dollars winners.

Queensland state government premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk’s crusade to boost local tourism operators, will hopefully reap the benefits from the $200 voucher scheme.

And during her visit over the past two days to Port Douglas, she used the opportunity to present local resident and business owner, Sarah Woods, with her winning voucher, one of 15,000 allocated for Queenslanders.

Responding to what she would do with the voucher, Ms Woods said: “When I look around I have to say go out to the reef. It is so beautiful.”

“I also want to support some of my friends in the industry here as well because I am a local and we have been hit really hard.

“So this is a really great way to get them back up and fuel the confidence that I am feeling personally as a small business owner," she said.


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The premier confirmed she had an opportunity to meet with a number of tourism operators in Port Douglas, including Sailaway, Outback Tasting Tours and Back Country Bliss.

“The clear message is that the vouchers are very well received and that we need to make sure that people are using their vouchers. This a great measure to help our operators,” said premier Palaszczuk. 

The state government has advised e-mail notifications have been dropped into the inboxes of 15,000 Queensland winners of ‘Cairns Holiday Dollars’ vouchers to pay half the cost of holiday experiences in the Far North up to $200.

And according to the region’s tourism arm, Tourism Port Douglas Daintree (TPDD), optimism has picked up.

“What was pleasing is that I have met with the premier and tourism minister a number of times in the past year, and yesterday’s conversation was so much more positive than where we have been.

“It really demonstrates that we have hit recovery. Numbers are picking up and operators are feeling more optimistic.

“The challenge really lies in the tour and experiences. They are not seeing the same cut through in numbers and that is why the Cairns holiday dollars is such an important initiative to try and stimulate people getting out and doing more tourism experiences,” said TPDD chief executive Tara Bennett.

Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said the Cairns Holiday Dollars initiative would generate around $14 million in the coming months for the Far North’s economic recovery from COVID-19.

"There have been 280 bookings already in the first few days of its operation. This equates to $114,000 worth of investment coming into the economy as a result of the Cairns holiday dollars, and some 49 operators who have been supported with the redemption of vouchers," said Hinchliffe.

Mark Olsen, Chief Executive Officer of Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ), said initiatives like the Cairns holiday dollars have immediately injected funds back into the industry.

“We have already seen hundreds of bookings and already travellers are out cashing in their dollars with smiles on their faces and thousands of dollars going back into our community."


Reporting assisted by Karlie Brady.


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