Cairns late with levy

Leu says ‘tourism tax’ a decade overdue

DOUGLAS Shire mayor Julia Leu says Cairns should have adopted their model of tourism levy when the two councils amalgamated more than a decade ago.

The shire, which takes in Port Douglas and Mossman, is dependent on tourism which makes up 80 per cent of their economy.

Ms Leu said they had been at the forefront of tourism in- novation around Australia, as one of the first local governments to develop a tourism strategy more than 20 years ago.

Their shire’s levy originally involved businesses benefiting from tourism, including the shopping centre and marina, charged a special area promotion charge” via their rates which was directed to Tourism Port Douglas Daintree.

Cairns mayor Bob Manning has flagged the introduction of a levy in Cairns which would operate as a “bed tax” and charged through accommodation houses.

The model drew some ire at a tourism round table meeting in Cairns on Tuesday from hoteliers concerned about passing costs on to their guests.

However, there are concerns Cairns could not sustain a business levy similar to the Gold Coast due to the size of the city. Ms Leu said she suggested to Cairns Regional Council they take on their levy model during the 2008 amalgamation, but the idea was dismissed.

“When we moved to Cairns they didn’t want to take our example at the time and apply the levy across the region which I think would have been a good idea,” she said. “I’ll be very interested in seeing details of the (proposed Cairns) model so it can be professionally analysed and reviewed.

“They need to put forward a proposition that it clearly articulates and everyone can have a look at it.”

She said she strongly agreed Cairns needed to find a way to generate more money for Tourism Tropical North Queensland to properly promote the area.

Following de-amalgamation in 2014 Douglas did not bring back the charge, but council now draws $500,000 from general rates for TPDD.

That amount is the highest of tourism funding provided per capita for any local government in Australia.