CEO’s statement

Tourism and Events Queensland’s (TEQ) TEQ’s major event portfolio attracted more overarching vision is to be a consumer-led than 216,000 visitors and $350 million in direct and destination-focused organisation that and incremental visitor spending to the State. In connects people and places like never before addition, a new Queensland Destination Events supporting a collaborative tourism and events Program was launched focused on leveraging business system. the link between events and destinations to extend the economic, marketing and social Our focus throughout 2014–15 has been benefits of events throughout the State. on owning the intrastate market, growing interstate visitation and accelerating We secured a suite of new major events international travel. including a Liverpool FC match against the Brisbane Roar which was played in July 2015, the We know Queensland is a tourism rich state, World Science Festival Brisbane from 2016, the home to diverse destinations, and natural Badminton World Federation in assets like the Great Barrier Reef which are 2017, the 2018 ITU Grand unrivalled anywhere else in the world. Final and 2020 World Championship.

Leanne Coddington The industry is performing well and there are The State also hosted the award-winning Chief Executive Officer positive indicators for future growth. During Brisbane Baroque, CMC Rocks and CMC Awards Tourism and Events Queensland the past financial year, international visitor for the first time. spending in Queensland reached a record $4.6 billion which represented an increase Major events on our calendar play an of 15 per cent on the year prior, the state’s important role in profiling Queensland’s strongest performance since before the capacity to host major events in the lead up Global Financial Crisis. Queensland’s top five to the Commonwealth Games in 2018 and international markets – , , the the TEQ team will continue to work with key United Kingdom, Japan and the United States stakeholders to ensure we actively support the successful delivery of this mega event which of America all recorded increases in visitor will have a lasting legacy for the State. spending and international travel increased to the majority of Queensland’s destinations. Digital marketing continued to underpin our global promotional efforts. In line with the 2020 Increasing aviation capacity, including from Strategic Marketing Plan, a digital marketing key growth markets in Asia, is directly linked to strategy was developed during the year to international visitation increases. In partnership position Queensland’s products, experiences with Queensland’s airports and the Department and events at the centre of digital marketing of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business activities to maximise evolving travel trends. and the Commonwealth Games (DTESB) in 2014–15, additional capacity was secured from The organisation hosted the world’s largest Singapore, Japan, the Middle East and China – Instameet in October which involved 1,085 benefitting regions from Cairns to Brisbane and instagrammers capturing more than 6,000 the Gold Coast. Crucial to this success has been images across 90 locations in Queensland and the Attracting Aviation Investment Fund. sharing their experiences on Instagram using the #thisisqueensland hashtag. With a strong planning framework in place, key initiatives for TEQ this year included the A major enhancement of Queensland.com was launch of the It’s Live! in Queensland events undertaken, consolidating our international calendar and marketing platform – a significant websites into a new visually engaging, milestone which signalled the coming together destination-focused site which provides of TEQ and the organisation’s strategy to deliver information in eight languages and can be and promote the world’s best destination- viewed on different devices, delivering a more focused events calendar. personalised visitor experience. Since its launch the site has been accessed more than 4.1 million times, an increase of 20 per cent on the year prior.

6 2014–15 Annual Report To coincide with the launch of the website, It has been a productive 12 months for TEQ TEQ rolled out the largest tourism network and the organisation will continue to focus on of iBeacons across the State. More than 150 its core objectives of marketing Queensland’s iBeacons have been installed in Queensland destinations to the world, event acquisition destinations which use location-based and experience development in the year technology to alert users of the ‘This is ahead and working collaboratively with our Queensland’ app to information on things to stakeholders to deliver gains for tourism and see and do in the destination. events in Queensland.

New destination brands were developed for Townsville (‘Alive with Curiosity’), Mackay (‘Nature.Reserved’) and the Outback (‘Live ’s Story’) to leverage the destinations’ hero experiences with the goal of inspiring more people to travel, spend time and money in the regions to assist economic growth and Leanne Coddington support local jobs. Chief Executive Officer We connected with operators throughout Tourism and Events Queensland the State at a series of ‘Conversations with Industry’ forums. This provided an opportunity to enhance our understanding of industry needs and opportunities as well as outlining TEQ’s strategies to grow tourism and events in Queensland’s destinations.

Solid partnerships with industry have been a strong feature over the course of 2014–15. In August, TEQ signed a $6 million three-year commercial partnership with Flight Centre, the first for TEQ with a travel retailer, focused on increasing inbound tourism to Queensland’s destinations from some of the state’s most valuable international markets such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

The tangible benefits of the partnership were delivered through a series of trade and marketing initiatives such as the ‘Big Aussie Reunion’, a campaign targeting UK residents to reunite with family and friends in Queensland on Australia Day.

The world’s attention turned to Queensland in late 2014 when Brisbane and Cairns hosted G20 summits, presenting significant opportunities to showcase the State to the world. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity allowed TEQ to promote Queensland’s destinations and visitor experiences to more than 170,000 journalists in 116 countries through global media distribution platform Thomson Reuters. The organisation also partnered with regional tourism organisations to create travel itineraries for delegates and media.

teq.queensland.com 7 About Tourism and Events Queensland

Established by the Queensland Government Vision: achieve a collaborative tourism in December 2012, Tourism and Events and events business system that engages Queensland (TEQ) is a statutory body under the and provides a sense of ownership of all Tourism and Events Queensland Act 2012 and stakeholders. part of the portfolio of Tourism, Major Events, Purpose: achieve economic and social benefits Small Business and the Commonwealth Games. for the State through the marketing and The primary functions of TEQ are: promotion of tourism, tourism experience and destination development, and through 1. to attract international and domestic sourcing, securing and optimising major events travellers to travel to and within to be held in Queensland. Queensland through – Queensland Government objectives for the a) the promotion and marketing of community Queensland; and TEQ supports the Queensland Government’s b) tourism experience and destination objective for the community of creating jobs development; and and a diverse economy through actions aimed at growing tourism and events. In the delivery of its 2. to identify, attract, develop and promote core functions of marketing; tourism experience major events for the State that – and destination development; and securing a) contribute to the Queensland economy; major events throughout the state, TEQ also and contributes to the Government’s objectives of protecting the environment and building safe, b) attract visitors to Queensland; and caring and connected communities. c) enhance the profile of Queensland; and

d) foster community pride in Queensland; and

3. to work collaboratively with the department and other public sector units and Queensland tourism industry participants to identify opportunities to increase tourism and travel to and within Queensland; and

4. to conduct research into, and analysis of, tourism in Queensland.

8 2014–15 Annual Report Organisation structure Operations (Group Executive – Position Vacant as at In 2014–15 TEQ’s senior executive team 30 June 2015) comprised of five Group Executives, led by the Chief Executive Officer, Leanne Coddington. • Support TEQ’s senior management and The key areas of focus for each Group Executive Board in the delivery of the organisation’s are outlined below. operational, strategic, people, research and financial activities; Partnerships • Identify and implement new and innovative (Group Executive – Rick Hamilton) research and insights methods to capitalise • Work in partnership with regional tourism on emerging opportunities; and organisations to deliver each tourism • Partner with airports to support aviation region’s Destination Tourism Plan; route development and increase route • Identify each tourism destination’s capacity. competitive edge in partnership with Corporate Affairs industry stakeholders to enable regions (Group Executive – Megan Saunders) to attract new and/or niche tourism and events, and maximise the opportunity that • Coordinate media and corporate each destination’s hero experiences offer communications activities across all areas consumers; of TEQ; and • Support tourism strategies related to the • Manage effective relationships with key Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games to stakeholders, providing effective and timely maximise legacy benefits; and liaison to support TEQ business activities and raise the profile of Queensland’s • Focus on multi-year strategic partnerships tourism industry through communications with major industry operators to showcase and advocacy. Queensland’s destinations’ experiences and products. Events (Group Executive – John Drummond Montgomery)

• Deliver a world-class calendar of events for Queensland, guided by the Events Strategy 2020; and • Optimise the value of Queensland’s event calendar by leveraging the competitive advantage provided by Queensland’s destinations. Marketing (Group Executive – Steve McRoberts)

• Develop and deliver global consumer-driven destination marketing, targeting a balanced portfolio of markets, in line with the destination tourism framework and 2020 Strategic Marketing Plan.

teq.queensland.com 9 Locations

TEQ staff are based throughout Queensland and across the globe, and deliver a range of initiatives in partnership with Queensland’s 13 regional tourism organisations (RTOs) including international and domestic marketing activities, events acquisition and development, funding programs and further developing tourism destinations by identifying new and enhanced tourism experiences.

During the year, TEQ had representation in 14 strategically important international markets. TEQ’s international offices are detailed in the directory on page 74 of this report.

UNITED KINGDOM, IRELAND AND NORDIC

London EUROPE Munich

AMERICAS Beijing KOREA CHINA Seoul Tokyo Los Angeles THE MIDDLE EAST Shanghai JAPAN Dubai INDIA HONG KONGTaipei Mumbai TAIWAN

Kuala Lumpur Singapore SOUTH EAST ASIA Jakarta

QUEENSLAND

Brisbane

Auckland

NEW ZEALAND

10 2014–15 Annual Report Tropical North Cairns Queensland

Townsville The Whitsundays North Queensland

The Mackay Capricorn Region Region Southern Great Outback Gladstone Region Barrier Queensland Bundaberg Reef UNITED KINGDOM, North Burnett IRELAND AND NORDIC Fraser Coast London EUROPE Sunshine Coast Munich Southern Queensland Brisbane Country Gold Coast AMERICAS Beijing KOREA CHINA Seoul Tokyo Los Angeles THE MIDDLE EAST Shanghai JAPAN Dubai INDIA HONG KONGTaipei Hong Kong Mumbai TAIWAN

Kuala Lumpur Singapore SOUTH EAST ASIA Jakarta

QUEENSLAND

Brisbane

Auckland

NEW ZEALAND

teq.queensland.com 11 Values TEQ’s organisational values support the company’s strategic framework, culture and purpose. The values guide employee behaviour and interactions with internal and external stakeholders and provide a framework for achieving TEQ’s objectives.

We lead together We are agile and responsive Guided by the Minister and the We embrace emerging trends and Board, we are clear on our purpose, opportunities. To thrive in a competitive direction and priorities and our team is industry environment we are proactive, empowered to implement. flexible and adaptable.

We are one team We go beyond We work in partnership with our We are creative, innovative and teammates and always act for the good solutions-driven. We strive for of the whole. continuous improvement, and make a difference where it really counts for Queensland.

12 2014–15 Annual Report