Red tape tangles park
Hartley’s croc centre will miss out on award
ONE of the Far North’s most popular attractions will not be entering this year’s Queensland Tourism Awards because of mounting compliance work.
Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures’ marketing manager Angela Freeman felt forced into the Best of Queensland experiences program and said unless the business met the criteria they would be excluded from Tourism and Events Queensland events.
“We are forced to spend weekends and free time trying to comply with it so I have no time to put together a submission for tourism awards,” she said.
“Best of Queensland does not recognise tourism awards, it only recognises social media.
“It’s a hugely impactful thing on people, I’m in shock as to how the government can legally impose this on us. I believe we’ll continue to be successful despite all this, though.”
Ms Freeman said not entering the Queensland Tourism Awards meant the business had no chance at a Tourism Australia award.
She was also frustrated Hartley’s could not enter the eco-tourism award category because the Wangetti attraction served crocodile meat at its restaurant.
“Hartley’s is probably the leading eco-tourism operator in Queensland and we’re not allowed to enter that category.
“There is no point us entering when we’ve got so much stuff up against us.”
The business won silver in the major tourist attractions category last year.
Tropical North Queensland businesses took out nearly a quarter of the 83 Queensland Tourism Awards in 2017.
More than 200 Queensland tourism businesses entered.
Paronella Park won the inaugural people’s choice award last year and a gold award.
Marketing manager Bridget Evans hoped the historic site would be as lucky this year.
“The people’s choice award was special to us because our customers voted for that,” she said.
Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind said Tropical North Queensland tourism operators continued to make a huge contribution to the industry in the state, bringing in more than $2.5 billion to the region.
“It was fantastic to see North Queensland take out so many awards in 2017 – it’s a real testament to the incredible local operators and we can’t wait to see more entrants from the region enter this year’s awards,” he said.
Nominations close May 31.