Sunshine Coast Regional Council suspends tourism budget

Growing disputes among industry marketing bodies on the Sunshine Coast has led Sunshine Coast Regional Council to suspend $2.8 million in tourism funding.
The money was put on hold after four leaders said they have little confidence in the region's Sunshine coast Destination Limited as a result of problems with drafted business plans and communication issues, ABC Sunshine Coast reported.
Councillor Anna Grosskreutz explained "we will collect the levy as we've always done but we won't give it to Sunshine Coast Destination Limited until we are assured that everything that they are doing is a cooperative approach with the rest of the industry and in line with what the industry expects them to be doing with the funding.
"It's back to the drawing board on how we set up our tourism industry within the region but certainly we won't be handing over millions of dollars to an authority who is working for us that we don't have confidence in."
Northern Tourism Advisory Panel Chairman Geoff Rickard added that the tourism body was not working in compliance with other organisations, stating "the involvement of the advisory panels has been minimal - in a couple of cases - closed down.
"That doesn't indicate to us that they wish to move forward strongly and taking that advice. They have refused to involve us to the level that we believe we should [be] and continually have meetings and listen but don't really apply what they say."
According to media, the Council has ordered the Group attend 'independent mediation' until the dispute has been resolved.