Tourism Queensland brings business building workshops to Whitsundays

 Tourism Queensland is the driving force behind a recent series of business building workshops aimed at helping local operators with access to domestic and international markets and the use of technology to generate new business leads.

 Forums held in Airlie Beach have included tourism marketing (July 11), web optimisation (July 13), profitable online marketing (July 13) and most recently, the ‘deciphering the cruise market’ workshop (July 19).

 Local businesswoman Stacy Harvey said she attended the “packaging and building” workshop, which she found helpful from the perspective of teaming up with other attractions and activities to benefit from joint marketing.

 “We need all the help we can get right now to get an edge over other destinations. These forums are highly educational in terms of providing tools for business operators that they might not have been using in the past, such as social media,” Ms Harvey said.

 Whitsunday regional TQ director Racheal Klitscher said TQ was very happy with the local business’ response.

 “Our latest session (the cruise ship forum) was particularly well attended, with over 30 people turning up,” Ms Klitscher said.

 “All the forecasts indicate that cruising is going to continue to grow over the next ten years. It’s a very positive outlook, so it’s great to see there’s an interest locally in this growing market,” she said.

 Ms Klitscher said this latest forum resulted in some valuable feedback about the Whitsundays as a cruise destination.

 “We rate competitively compared to other South Pacific destinations. In fact we’re probably top of the list. That comes down to the warm welcome and the personalised experiences the cruise guests are given here and this is in part due to the volunteer ambassador program. This program is unique – we’re not aware of any other destination in Australia that offers this type of welcome,” she said.

 TQ forums still to come include a grants workshop (July 26) and a ‘Q Talks’ online forum on August 4. For more information about ongoing industry education opportunities contact Racheal Klitscher at racheal.klitscher@tq.com.au