The Palaszczuk Labor Government today trumpeted China flights into Brisbane but continues to ignore Queensland’s regional tourism industry.
LNP Shadow Tourism Minister Jon Krause said news that one airline would direct a few extra flights into the south-east corner hid the disturbing trend of Queensland’s tourism industry falling behind southern states.
“While this do-nothing Premier prances around the south-east of the state chasing votes, Queenslanders whose livelihoods depend on tourism are being ignored by this Brisbane-obsessed Labor Government,” Mr Krause said.
“In the past year international visitor expenditure in Central Queensland fell by over $20 million, by $4 million in Cairns and by $2 million on the Fraser Coast - even the Gold Coast suffered a $56 million drop in visitor spending in the past year.
“Cairns is still trying to recover from the loss of direct flights from China in January this year and just last week Jetstar cancelled flights from Bali into Townsville.
“With youth unemployment at more than 20 per cent in many regional areas of the state, Queenslanders deserve better than another four years of Labor’s neglect of our regions.
“As Queenslanders we have the greatest State in the world to sell to tourists – but we need a government with a clear plan for our tourism sector.
“This shows yet another industry falling behind under a do-nothing Palaszczuk Labor Government with no plan for Queensland.
“Queensland is stagnating, the community is crying out for leadership and Annastacia Palaszczuk and her government are stuck in neutral.”
