The Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF) has today released a comprehensive blueprint to assist the Queensland Government in formulating its dedicated Tourism and Transport Strategy – an Australian first – to improve the visitor experience in the Sunshine State.

The Queensland Labor Government committed to the development of a dedicated Tourism and Transport Strategy as part of its pre-election tourism industry policy.

The highlights of TTF’s Queensland Tourism on the Move blueprint include:

• Fast tracking new cruise facilities in Brisbane;
• Getting on with advancing construction of the Cross River Rail project;
• Improving rail access to the Gold Coast and developing a sustainable plan for a stopover cruise terminal on the Gold Coast;
• Developing a multimodal public transport strategy for Sunshine Coast;
• Maximising the benefits of the cruise industry for regional operators by introducing key performance indicators for RTOs,
• Improving the driveability of the regional road network for regional tourism;
• Lowering the cost of seeQ cards and supporting better utilisation of digital technology; and
• Developing a framework for ridesharing that is flexible, responsive and does not stifle innovation.

“Queensland is the first State to start the process of developing a dedicated Tourism and Transport Strategy that is focused on making the experience of travelling across the State better for domestic and international visitors,” said Margy Osmond, TTF CEO.

“TTF has been a vocal advocate of State’s developing these type of strategies and we are very pleased to see that the Queensland Government and Tourism Minister Kate Jones is leading the charge in developing Australia’s first dedicated tourism and transport strategy.

“With Australia’s visitor economy growing rapidly and Queensland wanting to attract more international and domestic visitors to the State it makes sense to include the visitor in the design and implementation of the State’s transport plans.

“The measures we have included in our blueprint will enhance the visitor experience in Queensland. In the past year, we’ve seen Queensland slip from 2nd to 3rd place behind Victoria and New South Wales in the number of international visitors coming to each State. Queensland should have the ambition to arrest this slide and give the other States a run for their money.”