QTIC recognises industry innovation on World Tourism Day

Innovation and digital transformation were at the forefront of World Tourism Day celebrations for the Queensland tourism industry with the announcement of the 2018 Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC) Prize for Innovation in Tourism winners.

Presented on World Tourism Day (27th September), the top honour in QTIC’s ‘Prize for Innovation’ category was Refresh Noosa by Tourism Noosa - an initiative to encourage aesthetic updates and sustainable practices among local accommodation operators.

Welcoming the receipt of the Award, Noosa Tourism Chair Steve McPharlin stated “we are thrilled to receive the QTIC Prize for Innovation in Tourism for Refresh Noosa, an initiative that we introduced this year to ensure as a destination that we continue to offer a high quality, competitive and value customer experience.

“Refresh Noosa aims to support our accommodation managers and their owners to update, renovate and refresh their properties, and it’s great to be acknowledged for this.

“It was encouraging to also hear that the panel discussions at the awards evening reinforced this message and the importance of continually innovating and improving product for a sustainable tourism industry and to meet visitor expectations.”

The ‘Prize for Innovation’ runner-up was Ryan Moody Fishing from Cardwell in Far North Queensland for their online fishing courses for anglers who want to ‘fish smarter, not harder’.

This year’s QTIC Prize for Innovation in Tourism also saw the introduction of two new categories – ‘Up and Comer’ and ‘Industry Collaborator’.

Go Fish Australia took out the ‘Up and Comer’ category for their approach to educating the tourism industry on the new market and revenue opportunities fishing tourism has to offer.

The ‘Industry Collaborator’ winner was LEEDR Dynamic Solutions for their fully-customisable multi touch hub where travellers have direct access to relevant tourist information and can email it directly to themselves.

LEEDR Dynamic Solutions Director of Sales, Dragan Popovic stated “we worked with the Sarina Visitor Information Centre on this project – they had the idea and we had the software to achieve that idea. We’d done similar things for other industries, but this was the first time we’d done something like this for a tourism business.

“It’s great to be recognised for all the hard work we put in and it’s great to get the exposure within the rest of the tourism industry.”

Now in its sixth year, the QTIC Prize for Innovation in Tourism recognises small to medium sized Queensland tourism enterprises, and any businesses that work with them, that have demonstrated outstanding effort in innovation of their products, services or processes.

QTIC Chief Executive Daniel Gschwind congratulated all winners and runners-up for their dedication to fostering innovation within different parts of the tourism industry.

Gschwind stated “the tourism industry is facing many challenges when it comes to remaining competitive.

“This year’s World Tourism Day theme was focused on digital transformation – an area where the tourism industry has been and can continue to be at the cutting edge.

“This year’s entrants have demonstrated their capability and dedication to being leaders in adopting the latest technology to ultimately deliver better services and customer experiences.”

Gschwind added that the QTIC Prize for Innovation in Tourism reinforces the importance of continuous improvement to drive a competitive industry - an industry that contributes $25 billion to the Queensland economy and employs 217,000 Queenslanders.

In addition to Refresh Noosa by Tourism Noosa, Ryan Moody Fishing, Go Fish Australia and LEEDR Dynamic Solutions, other tourism businesses acknowledged for their innovative processes, products and services over the last year include:

• Bookeasy
• Corporate & Group Xperiences
• Down Under Rally
• Griffith University
• My Hosted Holidays
• Passions of Paradise
• Pterodactyl Helicopters
• Whitsunday Paradise Explorer
• Writeaway Whitsundays

Images: Noosa Beach (top), QTIC Prize for Innovation in Tourism 'Prize for Innovation' winner Isa Grube from Tourism Noosa with Queensland Minister for Innovation and Tourism Industry Development Kate Jones (middle) and QTIC Prize for Innovation in Tourism ‘Up and Comer’ winners [from left]; Ange Esdaile from Go Fish Australia, ‘Industry Collaborator’ winner Dragan Popovic from LEEDR Dynamic Solutions, ‘Prize for Innovation’ winner Isa Grube from Tourism Noosa, ‘Prize for Innovation’ runner-up Ryan Moody, Karen Rudkin-Moody from Ryan Moody Fishing and Minister Jones (below).