General News
6 May, 2023
Tourists flooding back to the village
TOURISTS are flooding back into Kuranda, with the latest figures revealing more visitors are coming to the village than before the Covid pandemic crisis hit.
Visitor numbers have sur-passed 20,000 in the March quarter – a six per cent increase over the same period in 2019.
“It is wonderful to see tour-ists are returning to the area following the pandemic,” Mayor Angela Toppin said.
“It is wonderful to see that visitor numbers have in-creased year-on-year by 170 per cent. Visitors’ numbers in 2023 have also exceeded pre-Covid levels, with a six per cent increase compared to the 2019 figures.
“This is a welcome boost to the local economy.”
Additional reports indicate that online search volumes have increased by 200 per cent year on year in March 2023.
“This was a promising lead up to the school holidays and council is expecting that this trend will continue with sev-eral community events coming up over the next two months,” Mayor Toppin said.
“As major asset owners, service providers and decision makers, Local Government authorities are key influencers and contributors to the visitor experience, and it is reassuring to see that visitors are return-ing.
“Council provides direct support for tourism promotion within the shire by fund-ing destination marketing and post-arrival visitor information services, and recently council and the Chamber of Commerce established a new Local Tourism Organisation (LTO) to promote tourism experiences in the Mareeba Shire.
LTO chair Cr Lenore Wyatt said said the formation of the Local Tourism Organisation (LTO) was a major step in the right direction, demonstrated by the number of tourism op-erators who attended the Think Tank gathering in early March.
“We’ve had some very big successes – we were glad to see over 50 people from across our shire came to the Think
Tank where we all talked about what wanted to see as the future of tourism in our shire – they came from Chillagoe, Irvinebank, Watsonville and even from our neighbouring shire,” she said.
“I look forward to the results achieved from this collaborative initiative and I invite tourism operators to contact the LTO via email to mareebashiretourism@mareebachamber.com.au to get involved.”
It was noted that Mareeba’s tourism figures – collated from data from Mareeba Heritage Centre – are also climbing back and expected to peak further in the coming months as grey nomads return to the area.
With the Mareeba Rodeo going back to a two-day format, and the popular Savannah in the Round set for another big year, boosting the festival with bull riding displays, both events are expected to contribute a significant boost to the local economy.
Meanwhile, council is encouraging locals to volunteer at the Kuranda Visitor Information Centre. Anyone interested should visit council’s website for more information
