As holiday makers and potential new locals continue to seek the Bundaberg Region regions extraordinary experiences and natural assets, the region’s Visitor Information Centres are calling for passionate locals to share their love for the region with guests as Volunteer Ambassadors.

As the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and home to the most significant loggerhead turtle nesting population in the South Pacific, we pride ourselves on being a community that takes Great Care in protecting and conserving our natural experiences for future generations, especially our turtles!

Emerging agribusinesses across the Southern Great Barrier Reef (SGBR) are planting their way to a successful future through the region's first Agritourism Mentoring Program, delivered with funding from the Queensland Government.

From unearthing Northern Tasmania's UNESCO City of Gastronomy to visiting farmers renowned for their quality produce and enriching on-farm visitor experiences, catch up with Team BT after their extensive 5-day immersive study tour across Tasmania’s north and north west - all part of the Southern Great Barrier Reef’s 2023 Agritourism Mentoring Program. 

The Southern Great Barrier Reef (SGBR), one of Australia's most ecologically significant and exciting emerging leisure destinations, has been announced as a finalist in "Partner of the Year" category of the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) Awards for excellence in destination marketing.

From international journalists and content creators to industry peers and production crews – Team BT are busy turning up the heat behind the scenes, curating bespoke itineraries, envious media famils and detailed production schedules, so the region’s stories, experiences and people can be shared with the world!

Team BT works with you, our tourism industry to strike whilst the irons hot to get holidays in the Bundaberg Region selling like hotcakes and letting the world know about the newest experiences that are hot off the press!  (Hot enough for you?? Get ready for a regular dose of puns!)

Check out our monthly lowdown on Who’s Hot In Region, and how you can get a slice of the action!

Members of Queensland’s 13 Regional Tourism Organisations (RTOs) met in Gladstone yesterday to collaborate on future tourism priorities for the State and continue to grow tourism across all regions.

Their ‘happy to help’ philosophy and love for all things local has seen Bundaberg awarded as the states Visitor Information Centre of the Year at the 2023 Queensland Information Centre Association Awards in Agnes Water this week.

Summer holidays are officially on the horizon in Bundaberg as tickets for the 2023-24 Mon Repos Turtle Encounter go on sale at 10am Friday 1 September.

With Turtle Season just around the corner, Bundaberg’s Destination website is getting ready for to welcome a mass influx of visitors, with tickets for the Mon Repos Turtle Encounter Tours going on sale 10am Friday 1st September 2023.

Bundaberg Tourism joins a prestigious list of nominees including national tourism organisations including Destination Canada, Japan National Tourism Organization, Qatar Tourism, Singapore Tourism Board, Switzerland Tourism and Tourism New Zealand | Manaakitanga Aotearoa.

Tourism Research Australia has this week released visitation data for the year ending March 2023 with record results for the Southern Great Barrier Reef.

The Bundaberg Rum Visitor Experience is the first tourism operator in Australia to achieve a global standard sustainability certification for tourism through Ecotourism Australia’s new Sustainable Tourism Certification.

Over the past few months, Bundaberg Tourism have been collaborating with local contemporary First Nations artist, Lili Jacobsen of Wattle Woman to design a new uniform for our Visitor Information Centre team.

Tourism leaders from across the state will come together in Bundaberg on 2 June to celebrate the 50th anniversary of World Environment Day.

Today was a landmark moment for the Bundaberg Region, as our friends at Bonza landed at the Bundaberg Airport with passenger services from Melbourne for the first time.

Bundaberg Region tourism businesses are rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty to plant 250 native trees that will offset the carbon footprint of Bundaberg Tourism’s 2023/24 Official Visitor Guide.

Leading travel app Wotif announces the winners of the 2023 Aussie Town of the Year Awards with Bundaberg snapping up second place as trends show Aussie travellers are carving out their own long weekends on the calendar, opting for shorter, more frequent domestic trips.

Yesterday a post was made on the NewsMail Facebook page entitled Inside the run down island off Bundaberg. The article is written about islands hundreds of kilometres north of the region, and in no way refers to Bundaberg or any of our islands.

Queensland’s Bundaberg Region, the southern-most destination on the Great Barrier Reef and the home of the nation’s most significant endangered loggerhead turtle rookery, has been awarded ECO Destination Certification from Ecotourism Australia.

Bundaberg and the Southern Great Barrier Reef is back on the world stage with the region on show at a number of major international tourism trade missions and events.

Bundaberg Tourism is delighted with the news that Australia’s newest low-cost airline has received regulatory approval to commence their direct Bundaberg to Melbourne route with low-cost fares.

Bundaberg Tourism’s AGM was held at Mon Repos Turtle Centre on Thursday 29 September 2022.
It was great to celebrate our 51st AGM with those who could attend and we sincerely thank everyone who participated and contributed to the event.

Congratulations to the new Board of Bundaberg Region Ltd for 2022/23!

Holidaymakers are putting Bundaberg’s premier turtle and reef experiences on their 2022-23 Summer must-do list, with forward bookings kicking off with renewed strength in response to Mon Repos Turtle Encounter tickets going on sale.

As we look towards 2032 and the possibilities for the Bundaberg Region, the Board and stakeholders of Bundaberg Tourism invite the regional community to join the tourism industry in designing the new Destination Management Plan tourism strategy that will take the region into the future.

The Bundaberg region's food bowl and passionate makers will be tantalising taste buds across the nations living rooms this Sunday with Channel Ten's food and lifestyle show, Taste of Australia with Hayden Quinn.

Spring and summer of 2021/22 was another sizzling success for our regional tourism industry, with our Q2 &Q3 Activity Report, covering the period from October 2021 to March 2022, demonstrating another highly successful peak season for the region.

Earlier this month, I emailed all Hinkler candidates on behalf of our tourism industry and members, asking them to outline their party's tourism policies, what tourism means to them and what they will do to support a strong and sustainable local tourism sector if elected as our Federal Member on 21st May 2022.

It was wonderful to start May with a coffee catch up in Childers (at Insane Caffeine) with several community members for our first official Childers Tourism Advisory Group (TAG) meeting.

Bundaberg’s annual Culinary Campaign has launched, targeting food-loving Australian travelers to entice them to one of the nation’s most prolific food bowls and emerging culinary destinations this autumn and winter.

The Queensland Government has funded a state-wide project to develop a pathway towards net zero emissions for the tourism industry before 2050. 

Representatives from Bundaberg Tourism and Bundaberg Regional Council attended the ECO Think | Destination Forum in March, where leading destinations from around Australia contributed to the national strategy to develop a more sustainable approach to destination management and tourism.

With the Easter holidays bringing a surge of visitors to the Bundaberg Region, a Pop-Up Visitor Information Hub will welcome, assist and inspire visitors in Woodgate Beach thanks to a partnership between First National Woodgate Beach and Bundaberg Tourism.

The most anticipated awards event in the Australian tourism industry calendar will take place on 18 March 2022, when the largest ever representation of Bundaberg and the Southern Great Barrier Reef tourism operators travel to the Sunshine Coast for the 2021 Qantas Australian Tourism Awards.

Tourism Sentiment Index has released Leading Places: The 100 Most Loved Destinations Around the World for 2021, and Bundaberg is #61 in the rankings. 

Bundaberg’s Best Go For Gold At Queensland Tourism Week

A big week lies ahead for the Bundaberg Region’s tourism industry, with representatives from tourism & hospitality gathering in Brisbane with their colleagues from around the state for Destination IQ, the Destination Q Forum and the QTIC Queensland Tourism Awards.

Bundaberg Tourism CEO Katherine Reid is featured on the program of Indigenous tourism conference Destination IQ on Wednesday 10 November as a speaker.

Bundaberg’s summer marketing campaign is lighting up Brisbane as the warm weather heralds the start of the region’s peak tourism season.

The marketing campaign will drive visitation and bookings into the Bundaberg region, with families and adventure-seeking travellers across south-east Queensland being targeted to ensure they know that “the Reef begins in Bundaberg”.

Bundaberg continues to stand out as a destination of choice for travellers, with tourism industry insights from July – September 2021 released today by Bundaberg Tourism demonstrating another quarter of sustained growth across the region.

Bundaberg was already seeing record visitation prior to COVID, and over the past 18 months, tourists have flocked to the region at levels that secured Bundaberg as one of the state’s most successful destinations in the face of the devastation of the pandemic.

Bundaberg Tourism’s July-Sept 2021 Activity Report gives further confidence to the region that this growth will continue in line with state and international borders opening and travel confidence returning to Australia.

The first day of spring brought blue skies for the Bundaberg tourism industry with a record response to the opening of Mon Repos Turtle Encounter ticket sales and major tourism operators recording considerable increases in interest and forward bookings.

Summer holidays are officially on the horizon in Bundaberg as tickets for the 2020/21 Mon Repos Turtle Encounter go on sale at 10am Wednesday 1 September.

The Mon Repos Turtle Encounter, held from November to March each year, operated by the expert guides of the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service rangers and the volunteers who return year after year to assist in the conservation of the endangered loggerhead turtles.

Holiday makers are also making their way to the region to visit the Southern Great Barrier Reef for an immersive, underwater turtle encounter around the coral cays of Lady Elliot Island and Lady Musgrave Island.