Queensland Budget Strengthening The State’s Investment In Tourism & Transport

The Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF) has welcomed the release of the Queensland Budget and the focus on growing the State’s visitor economy by attracting more international visitors and investing in transport infrastructure.

TTF called for more investment to grow demand for travel to Queensland in its pre-budget submission.

“The announcement of an extra $33.5 million over four years to attract more Asian visitors through the Connecting with Asia Strategy shows that the Government has been listening to TTF and the tourism industry about the importance of investing in this increasingly important market for Queensland’s visitor economy.”

“This is a Budget that also sees the opportunities to expand Queensland’s visitor economy by continuing to guarantee destination marketing funding and attracting more high-yield international visitors to the Sunshine State,” said Margy Osmond, TTF CEO.

“While this is a good outcome for the industry the Government needs to remain ever vigilant especially in the face of an increasingly competitive global tourism and events market. A level of flexibility needs to be embraced so that Government and industry are able to take advantage of new opportunities that arise.

“The Queensland Government’s commitment to cultural tourism through an additional $41.8 million in funding over four years is also welcome, and shows the Government’s commitment to capitalising on its cultural assets and further diversifying its tourism offering.”

Ms Osmond said the investment in public transport infrastructure including new signalling to increase capacity of the rail network is welcome but more work needs to be done on getting the Cross River Rail project underway.

“There is a big difference between improving signalling and delivering a multi-billion new rail tunnel under the Brisbane CBD. The work being done to prepare the business case and getting that to Infrastructure Australia quickly is vital to encourage Federal funding for the project.

“The Queensland Government will not be able to continue to ignore making the tough decisions to privatise many of Queensland’s “lazy” infrastructure assets that could free up capital to invest in new economic infrastructure such as the Cross River Rail.”