After a two hour special meeting Noosa Council last week voted 5:2 in favour of continuing its funding of Tourism Noosa (TN) with a one-year agreement reducing its annual payment from $2.5m to $2m, the transfer of events management and funding from TN to Council, the inclusion of a roadmap guiding future operations and new KPIs related to identifying new revenue sources.
Everyone agreed TN was a well respected, highly successful tourism marketing organisation though the meeting acknowledged the community had mixed opinions on council’s continued funding of TN and held concerns about Noosa’s over-tourism and traffic congestion.
Only Crs Tom Wegener and Nicola Wilson voted against supporting the agreement and raised issues on council’s finances and shortfall on strategic direction.
Cr Wegener described council’s situation as a “financial bind“ an did not believe and agreement to pay TN $2m was “financially responsible“.
“We’ve just been through numerous financial meetings doing the budget,“ he said.
“We’ve painted ourselves into a budget corner. We should have raised rates two years ago and last year and now we are in a bad spot and I think it is just terrible financial management to be paying $2m to TN when we know what’s going to come ahead of us with rates so I cannot support this.
“What would happen if we didn’t support TN?,“ he asked.
“Well, TN is a very strong organisation. They have a great board. They have a substantial membership. They get grants. They’re a fine organisation with enormous history that we all respect and love.“
Cr Wilson said if there was to be any future funding agreement, it needed to include clear and measurable outcomes.
“Any KPIs should be linked to those outcomes, not how TN finds other sources of income. TN’s board should determine the level of income it requires to meet its strategy and cost base.
“It’s not clear what six months of TN and council working on a road map can achieve without any strategic direction.
“If we are looking for streamlined processes, I’d prefer council to focus on delivering the destination management plan.
“I am not against some funding for TN, but I think we could rethink what that looks like and go back to the drawing board on a new agreement based on services and outcomes. I can’t support an arbitrary amount linked to inappropriate KPIs, and I don’t have sufficient information to suggest alternatives without greater analysis.
“Tourism Noosa is not the only entity to promote Noosa. Marketing of Noosa businesses would not stop if TN stopped its annual marketing spend of roughly $1m.“
Cr Brian Stockwell believes the community wanted three questions answered – will continued funding of TN exacerbate tourism, why is it important to continue funding for brand and marketing and how much is a reasonable level of funding of tourism compared to other sectors.
In answering these Cr Stockwell said through council’s collaboration with TN and marketing aimed at high-spending interstate and international overnight visitors, data showed TN campaigns were achieving what the community wanted in attracting fewer visitors who spent more, thereby maintaining the economy while reducing numbers of people.
He said it was important to invest where it makes the most difference and in Noosa visitors bought almost 50 per cent of goods and the tourist industry employed more than 4000 people.
Mayor Frank Wilkie said the 12 month TN agreement would allow time for the tourism body to refine its marketing focus, find efficiencies and for council to finalise Noosa’s first ever Destination Management Plan (DMP).
“The DMP was commenced to map out how Noosa can retain its identity as a highly desirable and liveable community while managing its success as a visitor destination,“ he said.
Community feedback from the first phase of the DMP suggested a transformation of the destination marketing body toward community values-based messaging to attract visitors who respect and undertake experiences that enhance the community they are visiting, he said.
Cr Wilkie said Council was committed to ensuring future funding agreements include consultations with industry, stakeholders and residents.
He acknowledged there were mixed views within the community on the role and funding of Tourism Noosa.
“It’s important that our community has input on Noosa’s tourism future and how we best manage the destination as part of the next phase of consultation for the DMP, likely to commence within the next few months,” he said.
The Mayor said Tourism Noosa was not funded by residential ratepayers, but rather through an increased rate in the dollar applied to commercial properties.
“The Tourism Levy that was paid by all commercial, industrial and transitory accommodation businesses was replaced in 2021 with a higher rate in the dollar for those same properties.
Cr Wilkie said Council would work with Tourism Noosa to ensure community and council expectations were met.
“A strong visitor economy is critical to our shire because it supports a significant number of jobs – around 4900 – plus it grows local business and benefits our community, but it is equally important that the organisation continues to remain contemporary and responsive to industry and community expectations,” he said.
