The 100 pound gorilla of economic drivers in Clifton, Palm Cove and Douglas is tourism. It is estimated tourism is a $1.2 billion industry in Douglas alone. The combination of Douglas and Palm Cove has an interesting dynamic from when Port Douglas and Palm Cove were once seen as friendly rivals. Well, it’s a forced marriage, so what sort of opportunities does it create? The fact that division 10 will now carry the nation’s premier tourist destinations means any candidate for this seat better know his or her stuff when it comes to tourism.

Whilst I make no claim to fame as a tourism guru, I have nonetheless managed a boutique hotel, I have skippered a charter vessel, have designed and operated an online booking agency and I am contracted to Accor both here and in Asia. I am reasonably up to date on what is happening at the cutting edge of tourism in tropical destinations, having been in and out of, and around Australia for Accor many times in the last few years. My project management consultancy specialises in tourism work.
Some of the ideas I have promoted in Douglas may well get traction in Palm Cove and Cairns. When I came to office in 2004, the Port Douglas and Daintree Tourism Association was having difficulty. It was overloaded with Carnivale. It was overloaded with admin costs. It was suffering membership rejection, it was under funded and losing effectiveness. Something needed to give.
It should be pointed out the PDDTA was largely funded by a tourism levy raised by the Douglas Shire Council, which in itself was controversial, years ago when introduced. The PDDTA was defined as an LTO, a local tourism office, subservient to an RTO, a regional tourism office, again, subservient to Queensland Tourism. The anomaly in this system was that the PDDTA, as a mere ‘local’ tourism office, was in fact way bigger than most other regional tourism organisations.

The first task I undertook to sort out our tourism promotion failings, was to fight for the separation and resurrection of the struggling Carnivale. This took both money and reorganisation. The timely establishment of the Port Douglas Chamber of Commerce created a new vehicle to manage Carnivale and the event’s management was very successfully contracted to Vicki and Byron Kurth’s Managing Australian Destinations, MAD, who have been terrific managers. The transfer of Carnivale away from the PDDTA succeeded and with the aid of added funds I was able to coax out of our Council, I progressively upped the Council Carnivale contribution from a $10k struggle, to a much larger $25K +$25K budget last year and through this refunding and reorganization, Carnivale has been strengthened and the PDDT Ltd freed up from its event management role, to focus on tourism promotion.

In the debate about the 2004 and 05 rates, matters became somewhat touchy when it became apparent, once again, that Port Douglas was paying about 80% of the DSC’s bills, but was getting limited say, with only 2 of 7 elected councillors being from Port Douglas, especially in matters important to tourism. Grumblings of this disagreement manifested in the first open discussion of Port Douglas being potentially better managed by Cairns than Douglas. But through this tension, came an understanding within the DSC, that tourism both costs a lot to support, whilst it pays most of the bills. Tourism needs call for shorter, better mown grass and good promotion budget to maintain occupancy and pax levels.
So instead of raising the tourism levy, the rates for overnight stay and commercial buildings were raised and with the money, the PDDTL saw its funding doubled and it was I who made the arguments and raised motions needed to rework the rates and double the PDDTL income. The PDDT Ltd now had a potentially bigger income from Douglas Shire Council, than Cairns City Council gives its own tourism promoter.

With the prospect of added income, the PDDTA was offered a carrot to transform itself. To facilitate a transformation, a DSC lead summit was convened, a lead consultant hired, a series of stakeholder meetings were structured. Cam Charlton was contracted to deliver the final new working model of the PDDT Ltd and with it, a whole new board structure, better links to TTNQ and a much more efficient executive. The executive role in the PDDT Ltd is now headed by the terrific Doug Ryan. The whole process was one of the success stories of the last few years in Douglas. I am very happy to have been able to contribute. But it’s important now that this momentum, which is seeing great new results, be maintained. The extra rates from the working accommodation sector are there to help support local tourism, not pay off Cairns debt and I hope the candidates who want the CRC seat, are as keen as I have been, to keep this process working.

In the year gone by, Tourism Tropical North Queensland has seen a drop in its international visitation, whilst Douglas held its figures steady, despite a big drop in the number of New Zealanders visiting the north. Domestic visitation is OK, but there has been an apparent 170% rise in day visitation to Douglas. These figures have not been duplicated in the Daintree ferry crossing numbers, so this needs focus.

Port Douglas public infrastructure has not kept pace with Palm Cove or Kuranda and the Port Douglas CBD is badly in need of a make over. With the Port Douglas Waterfront study embodying a review at the main street, there is need to find funds to tidy Port up over the next few years, either from the $13,000,000 dowry that the almost debt free Douglas brings to Cairns by way of excess land assets, or via funding from the waterfront trade, or from other ideas Cairns and Port Douglas can discuss.

Whilst the PD private tourism infrastructure has been upgraded through projects like Bale and Sea Temple, there has been little or no contribution to the CBD public infrastructure in Port Douglas and whilst projects like the tidy up of the PD Esplanade are nice, they are well short of what is needed and a comparison to Palm Cove Esplanade says it all.

It is time that wasted and idle land assets, like the Douglas Shires land surrounding the Sea Temple Links Golf Course, were sold along with the now vacant ex Rocky Point School site. Douglas has some $13 million of these idle assets and its well time that these idle assets were turned into working assets, improving the public infrastructure of Port Douglas’s main tourism areas, if nothing else, to keep pace with its new Cairns family.
The issue of the Tourism Levy, in some form, being extended in some or all of Cairns warrants debate, and is arguably overdue. Maybe the amalgamation of Douglas, with years of tourism levy experience, will prompt a new debate, not about Douglas giving up the levy, but Cairns adopting it. The LTO model of funding that Douglas currently adopts is under serious consideration as a model for other areas, in review by Tourism Queensland.

If you want to read the latest tourism results…have a look….tourism-1.doc

CONTACT ROD DAVIS: vote@roddavis.org

MOBILE: 0418 235561 or HOME: 0740 994434

MAIL: PO BOX 714, Port Douglas, 4877.