YOU’LL LOVE IT MR VP
Trump’s righthand man and Air Force Two touch down in FNQ
THE Far North gave America’s second most powerful man a tropical welcome last night after he touched down for his twonight stay for APEC.
With temperatures still top- ping 26 degrees at 8pm Vice President Mike Pence and wife Karen stepped from Air Force Two at Cairns Airport before being greeted by Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack. A motorcade then took him to the Pullman Cairns International which will be his base for the PNG summit.
“Then they’ve got the security teams, not to mention everyone else they bring.
“Those people are all ambassadors in their own right, so we want them to go back home and tell their friends, families and colleagues.”
The US is one of the Far North’s key tourism markets with more than 670,000 North American visitor nights a year.
Tourism Tropical North Queensland CEO Pip Close said media coverage of the Vice President’s visit would be priceless.
“World leaders and celebrities bring extraordinary coverage that cannot be purchased, helping boost the aspirations of people around the world to visit,” she said.
“TTNQ joined two trade events and a media event in this market in the past year and hosted two large groups of North American travel agents plus two media educationals with one spending 13 nights in the region.
“Working in this market was especially important following the negative publicity about the Great Barrier Reef and Mr Pence’s visit will further highlight that our dual World Heritage areas are bucket list locations.”
Mr Pence is scheduled to depart Australia tomorrow after the APEC summit in Papua New Guinea has ended.