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The Sunshine Coast Disaster Ready project is among the 12 projects to receive Tourism Industry Resilience Grants that have been distributed across regions in Queensland impacted by extraordinary disaster events in the 2021-22 financial year.

Almost $230,000 has been provided under a targeted program to support communities in disaster-prone areas of Queensland.

The projects are jointly funded by the Federal and Queensland Governments from the $7 million Tourism Recovery and Resilience Initiative under Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA). It is designed to help industry recover from the impacts of severe weather and build the long-term sustainability of the tourism industry in identified affected regions.

Queensland Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said 39 local government areas that rely heavily on tourism as a contributor to the local economy were impacted by the extraordinary disaster events in 2021-22.

Minister Hinchliffe advised “when natural disasters do unfortunately impact our tourism operators it’s important that we have their backs by providing these grants to help them build back better.

“Tourism operators in these affected areas are a resilient lot and will use these grants of up to $20,000 to build long-term sustainability in their areas.

“We are committed to supporting communities that have suffered from disasters. That’s why we are providing this money to support projects that will assist them to plan for and reduce the risks of future events.”

The successful projects are:

• Gladstone Area Promotion and Developments Limited for its Gladstone Tourism Operators Emergency Response and Disaster Recovery Plan
• Lockyer Chamber of Commerce Industry and Tourism for its Floods to Flourish project
• Southern Queensland Country Tourism for its Tourism Industry Resilience & Business Continuity Planning project
• Gold Coast Tourism Corporation for Destination Gold Coast’s Crisis Communications Program
• Roma Commerce and Tourism for its Valuing our Workforce project
• Outback Queensland Tourism Association for its Balonne Shire Tourism Business Mentoring Program
• Moreton Bay Region Industry & Tourism for its Building Tourism Industry Resilience in the Moreton Bay Region project
• Fraser Coast Tourism and Events for its Fraser Coast Crisis Preparation Program
• Discovery Coast Tourism and Commerce for its Discovery Coast Tourism Resilience Project
• Tourism Tropical North Queensland Limited for its Weatherproofing FNQ tourism businesses project
• Straddie Chamber of Commerce for its Weathering the Risk project
• Visit Sunshine Coast for its Sunshine Coast Disaster Ready project.

Federal Minister for Tourism Don Farrell said that tourism is often seasonal, so when disasters do occur businesses in the visitor economy can be particularly hard hit and added “these grants will assist tourism businesses build resilience and develop strategies to help those impacts into the future.”

The Tourism Recovery and Resilience Initiative is part of a broader $177 million Economic Recovery package funded by the Australian and Queensland Governments.

More details on the grants program and the funded projects can be found here

Image. Credit: Sunshine Coast Council

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