Tourism Recovery and Resilience Program - $29.25 million

About

A total $29.25 million Tourism Recovery and Resilience Program will provide support to eligible local government areas following the Tropical Cyclone Jasper, 13 - 28 December 2023 event.

The Tourism Recovery and Resilience Program is comprised of the following sub-packages

$5 million Tourism Recovery package - This package aims to provide immediate support to the local government areas to recover from the impact of Tropical Cyclone Jasper due to significant falls in demand and loss of visitation through cancellation as well as a range of infrastructure damage to businesses. The package includes the Infrastructure and Business Support program that aims to provide immediate hardship assistance to eligible tourism businesses. The Visitor Incentive Initiative will provide incentives for visitors to return to impacted regions through discounted flights and accommodation.
A $24.25 million Tourism Recovery and Resilience Program - This program will develop a grants program for Far North operators who have been cut-off or heavily affected by the extreme weather. Grants will be made available to impacted operators to re-establish their business, continue employing their staff and rebuild stronger with flood-resilient infrastructure such as solar panels and other mitigation infrastructure. The program will also fund a tourism and events marketing campaign to attract more visitors back to the region. The Program is comprised of the following sub-packages:
- The $10 million Tourism Exceptional Assistance Grants Program has been developed to support Far North tourism businesses that have been isolated or unable to trade due to the impacts of flooding from ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper.
- $10 million in Building Resilient Tourism Infrastructure grants will be available to tourism operators who were severely impacted to rebuild stronger with flood-resilient infrastructure such as solar panels and other mitigation infrastructure.
- $3 million for event promotions and a tourism campaign to attract more visitors back to the region.
- $1.25 million for administrative costs.

Eligibility

The relief assistance measures for tourism sector will be made available for the following local government areas (LGAs):

Cairns Regional Council
Cassowary Coast Regional Council
Cook Shire Council
Douglas Shire Council
Hope Vale Aboriginal Shire Council
Mareeba Shire Council
Tablelands Regional Council
Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire Council
Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council.

Should severe impacts and complex recovery needs be identified in other local government areas, the state may extend the eligibility of this relief measure to apply to additional local governments by agreement between the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), provided such a need is identified and it is within the capped funding.

Funding acknowledgement

The package is jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland Governments to support Queensland communities in their recovery from Tropical Cyclone Jasper, 13 - 28 December 2023 .