2019-02-12 Attachment 1 to Item 7 - Short Term Accom Online Platform Issues Paper

2.1         Tourism Noosa Ltd
The growth in the tourism industry is supported and facilitated by Tourism Noosa, the official tourism
organisation for the Noosa region. Tourism Noosa works collaboratively with Council, local
businesses and key stakeholders to promote the diversity of the destination to domestic and
international consumers, trade and the media15.

Tourism Noosa is a not-for-profit organisation that reports to a board of directors, consisting of
representatives from membership, industry and community. Tourism Noosa is guided by the Tourism
Noosa Strategy 2017-2022, which identifies that the key goals for Tourism Noosa are to:
     focus on value over volume by targeting high-yielding visitors, particularly from interstate and
      international markets,
     identify, attract and nurture new world-class visitor experiences, events and accommodation
      options,
     spread the benefits and reduce the impacts of seasonality with greater dispersal of visitor
      expenditure across the destination and through increased off-peak and mid-week visitation, and
     lift customer satisfaction by assisting our tourism operators to deliver exceptional customer
      service.

2.2         Tourism and Economic Levy
Council recognises the economic contribution of tourism and is currently committed to its ongoing
sustainability as well as appropriate promotion and marketing via its agreement with Tourism Noosa.
Funding for these activities is achieved through the levying of a special rate, the Tourism and
Economic Levy, which is applied to all rateable land that is categorised as transitory accommodation
(Principal Place of Residence - PPR or Not PPR), commercial or industrial.

Different rates currently apply depending on whether a property or business is rural or urban, and
whether a transitory accommodation property is the principal place of residence. Levying occurs on
the premise that these properties benefit directly and indirectly from projects and activities that have
a key focus on tourism promotion strategies, carried out by either Council or an approval external
agency, such as Tourism Noosa. It is currently assumed that identified short-term online rental
properties benefit from the destination marketing that the Tourism & Economic Levy supports.

Table 2. Summary of rateable properties – Tourism and Economic Levy
                                                                                                  $ Levy
                                                           Number of Properties                  collected
                                                                                                  ($’000)
                 Category
                                             Units         Dwelling       Total      % of Levy
                                            (Strata)         (Non       Properties   collected
                                                            Strata)
    Urban Transitory - Not PPR                  3,700            356         4,056       79.2%      $2,225
    Urban Transitory - PPR                         40              60          100        1.1%         $32
    Rural Transitory - Not PPR                     48              15           63        0.7%         $20
    Rural Transitory - PPR                             0           13           13        0.1%          $2
    Commercial & Industrial - Urban             1,015           352          1,367       17.3%        $487
    Commercial & Industrial - Rural                45           164            209        1.6%         $44
    Total                                       4,848           960          5,808       100%       $2,810


Funds collected from the levy by Council specifically for the promotion of tourism and related
activities are provided to Tourism Noosa under the terms of an existing funding deed.



Short Term Accommodation - Online Platform Response Issues Paper                                    Page 7