TQ job “rewarding, dispiriting", says ex-chief

TQ job “rewarding, dispiriting", says ex-chief
By admin


Tourism Queensland chief executive Anthony Hayes has described the role as the most “rewarding job imaginable” – and also the most dispiriting.

Hayes quit late last week, just one day after a new board was appointed by the Queensland Government.

Hayes, who spent seven years as TQ including the last five as chief executive, said he had “reached the end” of his time.

“I can’t begin to tell you how much I have loved this job,” he said in a farewell note to the industry. “It is the most rewarding, consuming, dispiriting, overwhelming job imaginable.

“TQ is a marvellous place, filled with the most amazing creative people. It changes and grows every day. Now it is time for someone new to take the reins and take it to another place.”

During his tenure, Hayes faced numerous challenges, not only from a flat domestic market but more dramatically from a series of natural disasters that wreaked havoc on the tourism industry.

Hayes said he hoped his successor “times their run with the weather and natural disasters a little better than I did”.

Describing tourism as an “art not a science”, Hayes said TQ tried to “attack every opportunity.”

“Not everything worked perfectly all the time but geez, we had a red hot go. We tried to be different, we attacked every opportunity [and] we refused to lie down when the challenges kept coming.”

Leanne Coddington has taken over as acting chief executive while a permanent replacement is recruited.

Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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