Less than four months ago, three-fourths of Queensland, Australia's second most visited State, was declared a disaster zone. First, the floods, and then a cyclone called Yasi wreaked havoc this February.
Today, you can barely tell it all happened. There are a few signs, of course — a part of the floating walkway in Brisbane is missing (washed away by the floods), trees in the Daintree rainforest have had to deal with the erosion of the top soil, jobs were lost, tourism was hit.
Queensland, however, reacted swiftly to get back on its feet. Tourism authorities decided to employ the same media that looped visuals of destruction to send out the message that the State was back in business – about 120 journalists from 20 different countries around the world were flown in to witness for themselves during a media familiarisation exercise end of March.
“Seeing is believing,” Jan Jarratt, Minister for Tourism, Manufacturing and Small Business, told over 200 local and international journalists during one of the biggest press conferences to be held in Queensland. “It's important to us that you see for yourself that we are not just back, but right on top and ready to roll out the welcome mat.”
A variety of options
“It's been a pretty tough couple of months,” Anthony Hayes, CEO of Tourism Queensland, admitted. “But, growth is going to be terrific. International markets will grow. You can't play with kangaroos or koalas under blue skies anywhere else in the world. Queensland has a massive variety of experiences to offer — from the tropical north and the islands to the casinos, the outback and the reef…”
Since it was going to be impossible for the media contingent to see all of Queensland even in a whole week, tourism authorities split them into groups to cover different places. While some were given a dose of adventure with a tour of Tropical North Queensland, some others got a taste of luxury in the Whitsunday Islands. A few others took home the Gold Coast experience. The organisers, however, made sure that everyone got to see Queensland's top destination, the Great Barrier Reef.
The reef — according to Scott Forbes, an aide to the Minister of Tourism — is Australia's second biggest tourist attraction. “It's bridge, reef, rock — people who come down to Australia generally enter through Sydney, see the bridge. Then, they want to see the reef, and then Ayers Rock.”
Of the six million visitors last year, about 55 per cent visited Queensland. “Queensland is one of the greatest drivers of tourism in Australia,” said Andrew McAvoy of Tourism Australia. “Of the one million employed in the industry, about 2,20,000 are in Queensland..”
Considering that about a third of the A$ 94 billion spending a year comes from international visitors, Queensland has rolled out an A$ 10-million package to boost the industry's revival and roped in cricketer Matthew Hayden as its ambassador. “I am an incredibly proud Queenslander. I grew up on a peanut farm. We have a unique way of life here. It's got a way of saying ‘Welcome' without even saying the words. You feel alive just because you are actually there — be it at the Daintree rainforest or at the pristine waters of the Great Barrier Reef that's been growing ever since the planet has existed,” said Hayden.
“I'll be going around telling stories about Queenslanders, who have been affected by one-time weather events, through Operation Sunshine (http://facebook.com/opsunshine). A majority of the stories will be about bringing sunshine to people's lives,” he told us.
After a week of non-stop action-packed adventure that included hot air ballooning, skydiving, jungle surfing, snorkelling, dirt biking, kayaking, white-water rafting and bridge-climbing, we tended to agree with him. The party continued in the Sunshine State with singer Cyndi Lauper springing a surprise — she not only performed for us but also, apparently, had waived her fees as a show of support to the State.
As we walked around discussing the week that was, we realised that the other groups didn't get to do any of the unforgettable things that we did. But then, we too didn't get to do the wonderful things they did during those seven days.
(The writer was in Queensland at the invitation of Tourism Australia, in association with Tourism Queensland)
