SUPPORT FOR LEVY
AIRBNB has joined some of tourism’s biggest names calling for a visitor levy to more than triple Far North Queensland’s marketing budget with the stroke of a pen.
The push for a modest tourism levy paid by visitors at their point of accommodation is gaining momentum with proponents aiming for concrete bipartisan support well before next year’s state election.
Home-sharing accommodation giant Airbnb has now jumped on the bandwagon and asked to be involved in more detailed discussions with Cairns Regional Council and the State Government.
The tech company’s regional policy director Brent Thomas said Airbnb had been a vocal advocate of the recent successful Queenstown visitor levy referendum in New Zealand.
It had also partnered with more than 400 jurisdictions around the world to collect and remit taxes, raising about $1.5 billion to date.
“Tourism already makes a significant contribution to the economy supporting local jobs in cafes, shops and stores,” Mr Thomas said.
“But as tourism continues to grow, it is vital the whole industry contributes directly to the local infrastructure visitors use and benefit from.”
The council has been advocating a small contribution from visitors – for argument’s sake about $1 a night – that would be used to directly bolster funding to Tourism Tropical North Queensland.
It has the immediate potential to triple the organisation’s annual budget from about $8 million to $26 million, not taking into account the private co-investment it would attract.
Experience Co – a business that carries more than 300,000 visitors to the Great Barrier Reef each year and employs almost 500 staff in the region – has jumped on-board.
The company’s Queensland general manager Steve O’Malley said discussions were under way over how best to complement money already sourced from local businesses and the council.
“To meet similar destination marketing spends of our southern peers in Australia, the Cairns region will need to lift expenditure by around six times current annual budgets,” he said.
“Major operators like ourselves and Cairns Regional Council through TTNQ are already tipping in significant amounts, but this is simply not enough.”
CaPTA Group marketing director Ben Woodward said the issue warranted serious consideration.
“Without question, TTNQ is in dire need of additional funding to perform the task of marketing our destination,” he said.
“If you look at a region like the Gold Coast, their LTO (local tourism organisation) has the funds to market a lot more than we do.
“They can work in niche markets. It would be great if TTNQ was in a place where it could look at specific niche markets outside the key existing international and domestic markets.”