Crystalbrook owner says Cairns visitor levy should apply to entire tourism sector

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One of Far North Queensland tourism’s biggest players has called for a proposed bed tax to be broadened to include other parts of the tourism sector.

Crystalbrook Collection owner and developer,  Ghassan Aboud, gave qualified support to Cairns Mayor Bob Manning’s proposal for a visitor levy to fund promoting Cairns as a tourist destination.

Mr Manning has been pushing for a 2.5 per cent visitor levy on short term accommodation, but Mr Aboud said it should apply across the broader tourism sector.

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"Not only Crystalbrook Collection, not only five-star hotels," he said.

“In the last three months, I travelled to eight countries.

"They write for you, tax, even for the rental car, even the restaurant.

“Anybody who is involved and eats from this industry, he should be part of this and pay his share.”

Cairns Regional Council financial modelling predicted the levy would raise $16 million a year, with Mayor Manning saying such levies are well established and accepted internationally.

Currently, Queensland law does not allow local governments to impose a visitor levy.

Council is lobbying to change the law and will seek support at the Local Government Association of Queensland annual conference in October.

Some tourism operators fear the extra cost to visitors would become just another reason to go elsewhere.

But there’s industry support for the levy.

Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ) CEO Mark Olsen said it would create economic impact of $176 million and support close to 1000 new jobs.

“When you increase destination marketing you get results as we saw with the Federal Government’s $10 million investment over the past two years.

“That $10 million allowed TTNQ to achieve $300 million in campaign-generated direct visitor expenditure by investing in targeted campaigns and working with our tourism and aviation partners.

“On the back of this investment we achieved record domestic visitor expenditure of $3 billion in the year ending March 2022.

 “Tropical North Queensland increased its market share in visitor nights and visitor spend within the State and was the only region to exceed our pre-COVID domestic visitor spend by more than $700 million. 

 “This success was a direct result of the increased funding. We need a sustainable long-term funding source to benefit the region into the future.”