Tourism industry to receive emergency-measure boost to help bring more visitors to Shire
Douglas Card
More Far-North-Queensland-based tourists will be able to ride on the Daintree ferry and visit Mossman Gorge for free from this Friday until the end of June after Douglas Shire Council voted to temporarily reinstate the Douglas Card discount-travel system.
Travellers from surrounding councils such as Cairns, Mareeba and Cassowary Coast will now be able to apply for a card, which gives them unlimited free car travel on the Daintree ferry and two free adult-entry passes to Mossman Gorge from May 1 to June 30.
Existing card holders can continue using them, while people can apply for a Douglas Card at the council chambers in Mossman or online - the council assures people it will endeavour to process applications as quickly as possible.
During Tuesday’s meeting, councillors heard from two Daintree tour-industry representatives and Tourism Port Douglas Daintree executive officer Emma Tunnock that many operators across the Daintree River needed immediate help to get through May and June or they might be out of business before peak season arrives in July.
They blamed a series of factors that have arisen since the latest Douglas Card promotion finished in February including high fuel prices, the month-long closure of the ferry after March floods, and cancellations following the uncertainty of whether a pair of cyclones might strike the region.
“We were really excited about the year ahead and then, boom, we had disruptions that were well out of our control,” Mrs Tunnock said.
“And now we’re in a new climate with another compounding impact of a fuel crisis.”
Mrs Tunnock said remote-and-regional tourism locations such as ours were “acutely exposed” to ongoing high fuel prices.
She said TPDD would run an about $20,000 local Douglas Card advertising campaign, while the council voted to forgo about another $20,000 in lost ferry revenue and card-production costs.
Daintree Rainforest tour-industry representative Jackie Pagani told the meeting fuel costs were hurting the region.
“What we’re actually facing, we’ve come off a month’s ferry closure, we’ve also been here for fuel prices,” Mrs Pagani said.
“That’s not just stopping people from travelling, it’s also affecting how we generate power.
“Our operating costs have more than doubled.”
She said those tourists driving to the region needed some price relief.
“They do want to come to the Daintree, but the reality is they do not want to pay a ferry fee at the moment,” she said.
“At the moment we’re actually all considering ‘do we stay open or do we close?’, that is how bad it is at the moment in the Daintree.
“We just need a little bit of support to get through the next few months and then we will be back on our feet.”