Funding for multi-million-dollar bush tourism industry boosted with major new program

Queensland’s bush tourism projects will now have access to a new $10 million Building Bush Tourism program designed to support tourism operators across the state.

The program, offering funding between $50,000 to $200,000 will support projects including heritage buildings, cultural institutions, aquatic and recreation facilities, infrastructure for arts and music festivals, walking tracks, lookouts and more.

Funding will be available to tourism operators, not-for-profits and local councils outside South East Queensland to create new or enhanced tourism, social and community infrastructure or deliver community and cultural experiences that improve local lifestyles.

The fund, announced in Cairns at the Tourism Week signature event DestinationQ, is expected to drive more than 300,000 additional visitors each year to Queensland’s bush tourism experiences and inject an extra $60 million in overnight visitor expenditure.

Tourism and Events Queensland CEO Patricia O’Callaghan said funding to support new experiences and infrastructure was important as industry worked towards its bold growth goals.

“Queensland is uniquely diverse and decentralised and the pledge to bolster our regional tourism offerings gives us new experiences to share and new reasons to visit Queensland,” Ms Callaghan said.

“To remain globally competitive this is exactly the kind of investment we need.”