Whitsundays Rick pick

FORMER Tourism and Events Queensland executive Rick Hamilton (pictured) has been appointed the new CEO of Tourism Whitsundays, where he will be charged with increasing the visitation, dispersal, expenditure and length of stay in the region.

Arriving with 25 years of tourism experience, Hamilton has enjoyed successful tenures at Flight Centre, where he rose to become Managing Director of the New Zealand division, as well as an 18-month stint as Tourism Fiji’s Chief Executive in 2013/14.

“With over 25 years of experience and proven ability to identify and seize opportunities to drive growth in sales, revenue and market share, Mr Hamilton is the right candidate for the role,” Tourism Whitsundays Chair Matt Boileau said.

In accepting his new role, Hamilton said his leadership style would be based around communication, collaboration and clear decision-making.

Tourism Whitsundays has previously stated its goal of increasing overnight visitor expenditure to better than preCOVID-19 volumes, earmarking a target of $850 million in spend and total visitation of more than one million people annually.