2019-02-12 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                              12 FEBRUARY 2019


E.    Who pays the Tourism & Economic Levy and what is it used for?
The Reference Group raised concerns about perceived inequities in terms of the Tourism &
Economic Levy and what it was used for. The main issues raised included who pays the Tourism
& Economic Levy and whether it was being used to attract more visitors which is exacerbating
the impacts on local lifestyle.

The following information was provided to the Reference Group:
 The Tourism and Economic Levy is only paid by businesses, not residential ratepayers
   (unless the residential property is being used for short term accommodation). Council
   identified that it has been having difficulty identifying properties being used for short-term
   accommodation via online short-term accommodation providers. Ratepayers who are
   providing their residential properties for short term accommodation using online platforms are
   gaining the benefit of destination marketing without contributing to that cost.
 The levy collects approximately $2.8M per year of which approximately $2.5M goes to
   Tourism Noosa.
 The levy has been in place since 2001 (in different iterations).
 Tourism Noosa uses the levy to implement its Tourism Strategy. The Tourism Strategy has a
   clear goal of “value over volume”. As such, Tourism Noosa targets its marketing effort at
   international and interstate visitors (primarily Sydney and Melbourne). The primary focus
   under the strategy is on increasing yield.
 Tourism Noosa does not market to the day tripper market.
 Tourism Noosa is also transitioning from a destination marketing organisation to a destination
   management organisation. Under its adopted Tourism Strategy, this sees Tourism Noosa
   putting more emphasis on industry development (customer service training, encouraging
   tourism operators to refresh their product/facility etc) and environmental sustainability
   (reducing emissions, plastic free events, contributions to tree planting, etc).
 This focus for Tourism Noosa is reflected in its Strategy that has four defined outcomes (as
   per Tourism Noosa Strategy) :
   1. Focus on value over volume by targeting high-yielding visitors, particularly from interstate
       and international markets
   2. Identify, attract and nurture new world-class visitor experiences, events and
       accommodation options,
   3. 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
   4. Lift customer satisfaction by assisting our tourism operators to deliver exceptional
       customer service.


F.    Gathering further data on the issue
The Reference Group identified the need for clear data to inform its deliberations. In particular, it
was identified that there was no clear understanding of the actual tourism carrying capacity at the
moment and also the number of day trippers (and future trends) to Noosa. The economic
benefits of tourism to the community have also not been accurately quantified with Tourism
Noosa now commissioning a formal study.
The following information was provided to the Reference Group:
 While the Noosa planning scheme has adopted the concept of a “population cap”, there is no
   equivalent provision in relation to tourism visitation.
 Council or Tourism Noosa do not currently have exact figures of the number of tourism beds
   i.e. our carrying capacity for overnight visitors. This has been made more complex in recent


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