Drive North Queensland targets southern visitors

Drive North Queensland is targeting popular southern caravan and camping shows in a bid to disperse valuable long-term visitors throughout the region which covers Tropical North Queensland, Townsville and the Queensland Outback.

Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ) Domestic Sales and Marketing Manager Claudia McFadden will be joined by representatives from Cooktown, the Atherton Tablelands, Hinchinbrook and Tully to promote Drive North Queensland at the NSW Caravan, Camping, RV and Holiday Supershow in Sydney from 20th to 28th April.

A series of emotive journeys drawing on experiences such as nature, adventure, heritage, Indigenous culture and food and wine will be shown to people at the show along with destination brochures for each of the Drive North Queensland regions and a call to action through the Drive North Queensland website and phone app.

TTNQ Chief Executive Rob Giason said around 60,000 caravan and camping enthusiasts were expected to attend the Sydney show with similar figures predicted for the Brisbane show in June, which also would have a Drive North Queensland presence.

Giason explains "the drive market is the key to dispersing visitors throughout the vast North Queensland region and spreading the tourism dollar among the many smaller businesses operating in regional and remote areas.

"Drive visitors stay longer in a region with an average of 5.5 nights in Tropical North Queensland and an average spend of $147 per person each night.

"Tropical North Queensland had 792,000 self-drive visitors in 2012, up 17% on the previous year, Townsville had 542,000 which remained steady and the Outback had 334,000, up 34%.

"Those 1.7 million Drive North Queensland visitors are just self-drive, the statistics would be even greater if they included the number of people who fly into Cairns and hire a car to experience the region.

"Our goal is to further increase this sector by showing drive enthusiasts that the four journeys - The Great Tropical Drive, Savannah Way, Epic Cape York and Overlander's Way - can be broken down into smaller routes to suit any schedule or interest."

The Caravan Show stand, which was also at the Melbourne show In March, is a cooperative initiative between TTNQ, Townsville Enterprise Limited, Tourism Cape York, Tourism Tropical Tablelands, Savannah Way Limited, Tourism Port Douglas Daintree, Mission Beach Tourism, Hinchinbrook Shire Council and Cassowary Coast Regional Council.