2021-02-09 S&O Agenda - Item 11 - Attachment 1 - Tourism Noosa Annual Report 2019-20

                           With our town and most of the country going                   partners and their commitment which
                           into lockdown, working from home became the                   will help ensure a modified event in the future.
                           norm, our international and domestic visitors were
                                                                                         While the bushfires and COVID-19 have
                           unable to come to Noosa as borders closed, and
                                                                                         dominated the year, Tourism Noosa continued
                           many businesses and their staff began to feel
                                                                                         with numerous other important activities.
                           the impact.
                                                                                         These included innovative domestic marketing
                           Tourism Noosa redirected its resources to where               campaigns, the renovation of our Hastings
                           they would best serve our members’ needs and                  Street Noosa Visitor Information Centre and the
                           continued to review operations to match business              delivery of the Noosa Trails Masterplan which
                           conditions. We reduced staff numbers by almost                will have long-reaching benefits for visitors
                           one-third and those who stayed worked harder,                 and communities, especially in the hinterland.
                           on reduced wages and under extreme pressure,                  We have made great advances with our data
                           involving themselves in community concerns that               collection and utilisation program, our website
                           were often outside their usual areas of experience.           review and environmental initiatives such as
                           The dedication and selflessness shown by all our              Plastic Free Noosa.
                           team has been and remains extraordinary and
                                                                                         We submitted a proposal for the State
                           must be recognised and applauded.
                                                                                         Government’s Cooloola Great Walk project, and
                           The region continues to suffer from the effects of            although we were unsuccessful, it promoted the
                           the pandemic and while case numbers have been                 approval of a valuable new visitor experience.
                           reduced and restrictions are gradually easing,                As part of this process we strengthened our
                                                          the economic damage of         relationship with the traditional owners of the
                                                          the pandemic will be felt by   Cooloola area, the Kabi Kabi people and we hope

“While the bushfires and                                  our community and local        this may result in working with them on other

COVID-19 have dominated the                               business for years to come.    projects. The Cooloola Great Walk will prove to be

year, Tourism Noosa continued                                                            a new world-class tourism product in our region
                                                          Further, it became apparent
with numerous other important                                                            that will be very attractive to our visitor sectors.
                                                          that events usually
activities (including) innovative
                                                          scheduled throughout the       We have completed our new Tourism Noosa
domestic marketing campaigns,
                                                          year in Noosa would not        Strategic Plan 2020-2023 to lead our industry
the renovation of our Hastings
                                                          proceed. Tourism Noosa         through COVID recovery and beyond. The
Street Noosa Visitor Information
                                                          had invested substantial       research saw our most significant consultation
Centre and the delivery of the
                                                          effort and money into the      to date with members as we invited insights
Noosa Trails Masterplan.”
                                                          newly named Noosa Eat &        through an in-depth questionnaire to inform
                                                          Drink Festival held annually   us of our community’s needs and expectations.
                                                          in May, as had many of our     Throughout the process we listened to hundreds
                           partners and members. It was with great regret                of stakeholders from inside and outside our
                           that we were forced to cancel the event and,                  membership base including business
                           as a consequence, we were unable to recover                   associations and community organisations,
                           a large sum already spent on its preparation.                 and we have carefully considered and assessed
                           Thanks to our incredible team who had worked so               the information gained to guide us.
                           hard on creating a wonderful program, we were
                           able to secure funding from Tourism and Events
                           Queensland for the future, along with support from
                           other partners. We are grateful to these valued




  TO U R I S M N O O S A A N N UA L R E P O R T 2 0 1 9 / 2 0                                                                                   4