With more than 40 stakeholders in attendance Bundaberg Tourism held its 48th annual general meeting at Fairymead House last week.
With the presentation of the annual report and financial statements, the proceedings of the meeting included the acceptance of nominations for two new directors, Carly Clark of Splitters Farm and Warrick Wright of Bundaberg Brewed Drinks, along with re-standing director Teena Mammino.
Tourism contributes 10.7 per cent to Bundaberg’s gross regional product and the tourism industry generated over $463 million in visitor expenditure into the Bundaberg Region economy in 2018.
Injecting over 1.2 million dollars a day of new money into the community and supporting many industries across the region, tourism is a big part of what makes the Bundaberg region tick.
While still delivering growth for our region through the support of the industry, the organisation has gone through some big changes over the past 12 months and thanked those in attendance for their support throughout the year.
The year began with a renaming to Bundaberg Tourism, to leverage off the existing brand of Bundaberg and strengthen the position as the leading destination marketing and development organisation for the region.
The team was reshaped to ensure the skillset, innovative thinking and drive to deliver on the strategic priority areas of the Destination Tourism Plan.
Deputy chair Teena Mammino noted the move out of the West Bundaberg home of more than 20 years and into the new Visitor Information centre and corporate office over East as one of the biggest changes of the year.
“With constant feedback from visitors about the limited parking and the inaccessibility for motorhomes and caravans, the move of our Visitor Information Centre was necessary,” she said.
“Without the funding to build a completely new centre on the main road, the existing building at East Bundaberg was a perfect opportunity for us, not only giving us the chance to expand our team, but also giving us that accessible parking for our biggest visitor source of income, the drive market.”
General Manager Katherine Reid addressed the attendees and urged for a united force.
“As a region, in an incredibly competitive global marketplace, we can’t afford to be sitting back in the spectator seats, we have to be on the field and in the play,” she said.
“Delivering proactive and visionary thinking, robust, considered decision making and continuing to create opportunities through tourism that contribute to the social, cultural and economic prosperity of our community.
“I’m looking forward to doing just that this year as a united Team Bundaberg”
The full Bundaberg Tourism board for 2019-20 can be found online here.
As per the Bundaberg Region Ltd Constitution the new board will meet within a month of the AGM to elect office bearers to the positions of chair, deputy chair and treasurer, as well as considering appointment of casual vacancies to address any skills and experience gaps to ensure the board is a robust representation for the regions tourism industry.
