Monday 6 February 2012

Morris presents to MBS

The education of Melbourne Business School students continued yesterday with a presentation from Wendy Morris giving an insight into the challenges the region has faced, and the opportunities that must be capatilised on.

The Morris family have been heavily involved in the development of the region for 40 years encompassing a number of industries from agriculture, property development, tourism (Ms Morris was
Chairman of Tourism Port Douglas and Daintree), and now energy with the Tableland windfarm project underway.

Ms Morris presented her opinion on "catalyst events" that have had a major influence on the prosperity of the region, both positive and negative. Positive events included:

The completion of Cairns International Airport;
Establishment of Quicksilver Cruises;
Building of Sheraton Mirage;
Introduction of Compass Airlines;
Marketing of the region; and
Increase in flight services.

And in the negative column:

1989 pilot strike;
SARS outbreak;
Asian Financial Crisis;
Global Financial Crisis;
Extreme weather events; and
Loss of flight services.

Ms Morris said trends such as the rising and falling of the Australian dollar, ageing infrastructure, the move toward shorter holidays, and increased competition from places such as Bali, Fiji, and domestic, has also played a part in the region's success or lack thereof.

"Anything that competes for disposable income is what we need to compete against," she said.

She added that community leaders had responded to the challenges that the region has been faced through the establishment of TPDD, "tactical marketing campaigns with Tourism Tropical North Queensland, Tourism Queesland, and Tourism Australia," and community engagement.

Ms Morris conveyed what she believed the goals for the region's future should be with the short-term objective to "stop the bleeding" from local businesses, then refresh infrastructure with the
Sheraton refurbishment the top priority followed by the waterfront redevelopment, and build economic resilience in the long-term.

"The tourism industry is the silent major achiever. The tourism industry needs to be strong and stand up for what we offer in terms of the (national) economy."

Melbourne Business School students were urged by mentor Selwyn D'Souza to raise the energy levels for the next stage of the project which involves a number of focus group sessions with community members.

Cheap, easy, and lasts longer. Check out The Newsport Classifieds.

Have your say!

The comments made below are the opinions of the reader and do not represent the views of The Newsport. We ask you to provide your full name and valid email address to ensure your comments' legitimacy is acknowledged. Editor reserves the right to amend comments in accordance with Publisher’s Terms and Conditions. Click here for full publishers terms and conditions for reader comments.

Prue Hewett, 07-02-12 17:56:

I wonder if we value our global treasures and promote them in a manner befitting their status on the World Tourism Stage. I would consider the Daintree Rainforest, the world's oldest rainforest and the place where the Australia's Wet Tropics World Area meets the Great Barrier Reef, as being as important as the the Galapagos. Even Lake Baikal, the world's largest fresh water lake is marketed as the Russian Galapagos, the Pearl of Siberia. Australia seems to confuse tourists by not promoting the best that we have and even pretending that a relative youthful rainforest at Mossman Gorge is the ancient Daintree Rainforest.
For 16 years Queensland has operated under a policy of redirecting tourism away from the Daintree Rainforest, north of the Daintree River. This is hard to understand when you consider that the area could have been a successful working model of sustainability operating in accordance with World Heritage primary goal.
Wendy Morris might like to take a look at conservation management strategies that have limited tourism in the Region.