The Tropical North Queensland tourism industry has ended 2013 on a high with strong growth in domestic and international visitors, a record number of our operators receiving Queensland Tourism Awards and renewed enthusiasm for investment in infrastructure.

After eight years of leading Tourism Tropical North Queensland through some of its darkest days, I too have ended my time as Chief Executive Officer on a high as I look back on the remarkable achievements of our organisation and industry.

These exciting achievements have happened because the tourism industry in Tropical North Queensland is all about getting up and finding opportunities.

In 2010, after four years of continual setbacks including the loss of direct flights, Asian flu outbreaks and Cyclone Larry, we made the decision to develop a very bold plan so we would not drown in our tears. With the support of the board and the industry we developed a strategy to grow the industry by $1 billion to become a $3.2 billion industry in 2010. I am ecstatic to say we are well on our way to achieving that.

Setting bullish targets kept our attention on what needed to be done and that was to stay focused on the key markets which had the greatest potential for growth for our region. That decision has not always been easy as there have been ongoing opportunities with emerging markets, but to divert our attention to these would spread our resources too thinly.

We continued our focus on Japan, a market that suffered great losses, and worked hard to regain lost aviation links. We now have daily services from Tokyo and fight direct flights from Osaka which will build to seven.

We stayed patient with the UK and Europe knowing that the Global Financial Crisis had affected these markets more than any others. In the past year we have enjoyed double digit growth of 15per cent from the UK and 17 per cent from France and Germany.

As the biggest market in the world, China was an essential part of our plans and even without regular direct air links we have been able to achieve 45 per cent growth taking us to more than 32 per cent share of Australia’s holiday visitors.

This balanced portfolio approach also takes into account the fact that some markets achieve greater visitor numbers and others deliver a longer length of stay. For example, the European and UK markets average 11 nights, but Japan with the greater visitor numbers has the shorter stay of six nights.

Becoming the first regional destination to host Corroboree Europe and the Australian Tourism Exchange is all part of the grand plan to ensure we remain relevant in our key markets.

Success also has come from our ability to develop key strategic partnerships. This has allowed us to influence the agenda on issues like training and industry development, in turn contributing to improved investment opportunities.

The underlying plan of our events strategy was to diversify the industry and increase activity in our shoulder seasons. This has been a resounding success with more than 20 events of national and international quality added to our events calendar.

Our aviation strategy was very clear and its potential for economic development was so great that it influenced government policy. We had both major parties going to the State election promoting aviation incentives as part of their economic policy.

Aviation is the region’s umbilical cord and it requires ongoing attention and focus – we can never take our eye off this issue. We are in a very different space to that of the past two decades and few people truly understand the dynamic of the low-cost aviation model on this destination. Since we have shifted to a heavily focused low-cost model operating in our destination we have seen growth in our domestic aviation capacity.

We have to acknowledge and appreciate our aviation partners, their needs and work with them and support them so they can help  deliver the required results for the destination. No airline owes any destination any favours. It is all about being able to operate profitable routes.

It is very encouraging that the State Government has made tourism one of its four economic pillars and has its focus on destinations, providing substantial contestable funding for Regional Tourism Organisations for the first time. The beauty of this system is that a dynamic team like TTNQ has an incentive to strive for. Our ability to partner with the Cairns Airport and Cairns regional Council,  with the support of our industry to build on such funding, has helped Tropical North Queensland command the highest level of contestable funds of any region for the past two years.

Finally I need to acknowledge the elephant in the destination. Our region attracts more international holiday visitors than four states and territories combined. Comparing our expenditure of 6.5 million to their combined budget of around $150 million shows we deliver a healthy return on investment. This highlights the imbalance of tourism investment for this region in comparison to its economic delivery.

I will leave this for others to ponder and deliver on, but as a Cairns resident I know I can look forward to a bright future in a city that is moving forward.