Brett Fraser Chief Executive Officer

It seems fitting that my final message to you as CEO of this remarkable organisation begins with congratulations to the outstanding lineup of finalists in this year’s Queensland Tourism Awards.

Today, we share the sad news that our friend and a prominent legend of the tourism industry, Sir Frank Moore, passed away on Thursday morning. We mourn the loss of a revered and much-loved professional, mentor and colleague.  
 

As I write this, I feel mixed emotions, knowing this will be one of my final messages to our members as CEO of QTIC. Since joining this tremendous organisation more than two and half years ago, I have had the privilege of witnessing our tourism industry rebound from tumultuous a time and reach new heights.

We’ve covered a lot of ground so far this year in terms of advocacy and advancing the needs of the tourism industry. This month we saw the Australian Government release the Aviation White Paper – a framework that sets out 56 policy initiatives to ensure a safer, and a more competitive, sustainable and productive industry sector.

By now you may have heard the exciting news that, in 2024, QTIC will deliver our state’s largest tourism conference, the DestinationQ Forum, in partnership with the Department of Tourism and Sport and Tourism and Events Queensland. This announcement means that all three major events taking place during Tourism Week – the Destination IQ and DestinationQ Forums, and the Queensland Tourism Awards Ceremony – will now be delivered by industry for industry.

Earlier this month, our industry celebrated a major win when the Federal Government announced they would not cap the Working Holiday Maker (WHM) visa to 12 months; a cap that was originally proposed in the 2023 Migration Review.

This win comes off the back of significant advocacy efforts by QTIC and the Australian Tourism Industry Council (ATIC). Our organisations provided the Minister for Immigration with an analysis of the detrimental impacts of the proposed cap and later met with Minister Giles to stress the vital importance of long stay backpackers to tourism businesses.

It is hard to believe that we are fast approaching the end of another financial year, which means that QTIC membership renewals are just around the corner.

I would like to take a moment to thank you for your support this past financial year. Your contributions and active involvement with QTIC have made it possible for our tourism industry to have a strong and unified voice to government. Your membership has enabled us to undertake our advocacy efforts, member activities and suite of industry and workforce development programs. Thank you for your support and I hope to see you return in 2024 - 2025 as a QTIC Member.

This month saw me travelling throughout Queensland, where I had the chance to meet with QTIC members and connect with regional operators. The QTIC team flew into Rockhampton and Capricorn earlier this month, where we visited local businesses and enjoyed a sit-down breakfast with tourism operators in Yeppoon.

The latest results from Tourism Research Australia were released this month, with the numbers showing that Queensland holds the position as the nation’s leading domestic holiday market, with 28.1 per cent market share of the country’s holiday expenditure in 2023. Overall, Queensland operators once again benefited from Australians choosing to holiday in our state, with total domestic overnight visitor expenditure climbing to $28.3 billion in 2023.