With border restrictions easing across the nation, more and more people are looking to make up for lost time with their families and friends and to explore all the places they dreamed of while in lockdown. 

With more and more colourful artworks, beautiful murals and intricate statues showcasing our vibrant culture popping up throughout the region, it’s a wonderful opportunity to talk about the wealth of benefits that public art brings to our community and tourism industry.

With the school holidays quickly approaching (4 weeks til Christmas!), we are beginning to see a flurry of activity on our digital channels of people from interstate exploring holidays in our backyard.  

For visitors, every touch point during their holiday makes a difference, and our local businesses play a major role in this. By consistently delivering exceptional experiences around the region, it inspires our visitors to return and spend more money in our community.

A local business person stopped me on the coastal pathway in Bargara over the weekend, as my son and I were strolling along with our icecreams. He mentioned that he had spotted this column in the Bundaberg Today and enjoyed reading it, suggesting that I needed to share also why we do what we do at Bundaberg Tourism. 

The Bundaberg Region Destination Tourism Strategy outlines the foundational pillars of the tourism industry for the region, highlighting an ethos of Green and Meaningful, with sustainability at the forefront of the visitor experience, promoting a strong community sense of responsibility for the land, for the turtle population and for the Great Barrier Reef.

The countdown for the Mon Repos Nightly Turtle Encounters is officially on with the season to begin next Friday evening.

To further develop destination marketing strategies, a PhD Candidate from James Cook University, Karmen Lužar, is investigating how the tourism industry and universities may work together to add new dimensions to the tourism experience. 

With COVID-19 restrictions easing in Queensland and more visitors returning to our beautiful region, our tourism industry and passionate operators have been in the spotlight right across the nation.