Novel look at romance

UNDERWATER tourism plans for the waters off Townsville deserve support from city leaders, local businesses and residents.

The sculptures created by British artist Jason deCaires Taylor have brought huge tourism benefits to the regions that have invested in this new form of eco- friendly, sustainable tourism.

The idea is simple: take barren sea bed and install artworks that will soon become home to marine and coral life and draw visitors in to marvel at the unique, living installations.

Taylor’s work is on permanent display in such cities, with one installation in Mexico – around the size of the Townsville proposal – attracting 400,000 visitors a year.

The mood was enthusiastic at yesterday’s Bulletin business breakfast, where attendees heard from the artist himself as well as interested parties backing the push to launch such a project here in Townsville.

Our city has a long and proud history as an industrial and trading hub but the region’s tourism offering is deserving of more focus and attention in coming years.

The waters off our coast are pristine and relatively untouched by the ravages of coral bleaching, which has decimated certain parts of the reef in more fancied tourism hot spots such as Cairns and Port Douglas.

Townsville is one of few regions in the state that is exceeding tourism expectations but our industry leaders seem to have identified a real opportunity to diversify North Queensland’s offering as a holiday destination.

The leaders behind the proposal will launch a funding drive for the project next week and major funds have already been committed by The Ville Resort- Casino’s Morris Group.

Hopefully other businesses in the city will see the potential of this project to bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to the region and set Townsville up for the next phase of tourism development.

Vital step to reduce DV

DOMESTIC violence is the ugly side of our society and it is good to see the issue gaining more and more attention.

The sad scale of the issue has been revealed today in new statistics showing that, on average, more than one charge of choking is laid in the Townsville police district weekly.

New legislation making strangulation an offence is an important measure for people living in abusive relationships, allowing intervention to occur much sooner.

More needs to be done to stamp this scourge out all together but it is a good step.