Tuesday, November 12, 2024

$7m funding boost for flood-hit Queensland tourism industry

The Queensland and Federal Governments have announced a co-funded $7 million Tourism Recovery and Resilience package to help the state’s tourism industry ‘build back better’ and reduce disruption in the case of future extreme weather events.

Federal Minister for Emergency Management Senator, Murray Watt said the assistance would help Queensland tourism operators affected by the rainfall and flood events of 2021-2022, as well as Ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth.

“Ensuring our tourism infrastructure is robust and ready for the next inevitable disaster is critical to the ongoing viability of the sector,” Minister Watt said.

Grant funding from $20,000 up to $150,000 will be considered for eligible tourism business resilience projects in 37 declared affected local government areas.

Queensland Tourism Minister, Stirling Hinchliffe said the program was designed to help tourism operators to fast-track longer-term resilience and recovery.

“Queenslanders know it’s not a matter of if extreme weather events occur, but when,” Mr Hinchliffe said.

“The Australian and Queensland Governments are putting $5 million on the table to help disaster affected tourism operators get back on their feet sooner.

“Small levees, pumps, hoists to reduce the inundation risk to valuable equipment and alternative power supplies are examples of resilience projects we’re looking at.

“Projects could also include improvements to existing tourism infrastructure and resilience training for tourism business staff.

“By helping tourism operators to reduce business downtime after extreme weather, we hope to see fewer booking cancellations and less impact on visitor economies.”

The remaining $2 million will be invested in exploring opportunities to diversify visitor experiences in areas susceptible to natural disasters.

The $7 million Tourism Recovery and Resilience initiative is part of a larger $177 million Economic Recovery package.

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