OQTA MEETING HELD AT
TOURISM & EVENTS QUEENSLAND BRISBANE
13TH NOVEMBER 2015
Present
Stuart McKenzie, Belinda Murphy,Steve Jones, Robyn Stephens, Natalie Flecker (attended meeting 9.20am)
Teleconference: Nil
Peter Homan GM,Matt Bron TEQ
Meeting commenced 8.47am
Stuart McKenzie took the chair and welcomedeveryone especially newly elected board member Steve Jones. Steve gave a brief overview on his career and present position as State Manager of Regional Express based in Cairns. Each member provided a brief overview of their history in relation to the tourism product.
Apologies: Rob Chandler, Cam Maurant, Tania Kernaghan
Dec of interests Nil
Use of common seal Nil
No Financials
Correspondence In: Nil
Ratification of previous minutes:Minutes to be ratified at next Board meeting
Action Item – Jane Morgan to supply Minutes
Matters arising from Previous Meeting- Nil
FINANCIALS - NIL
Treasurers Report: NIL
BANK STATEMENTS - NIL
GM Report
Hosting of 2016/2017 Tourism Awards – Expressions of interest close end of December 2015. Decision to be made February 2016 and announced. Expressions of Interest out in May for 2017 host town and to be announced at the 2016 Tourism Awards
Alison Angus leaves end of November. Teagan to carry out administration work for the interim period and has been offered a full time position with OQTA but, has indicated her
continuinguniversity studies.
Interested personneeds to be outsourced for the administration role as well as forConsumer shows - will require at least (2) people on the stand especially with the Outback Mates program.
2016 Consumer Show a need for much more of presences at the Melbourne show in February which will be a trial for the first one as all to do with the drive market
TEQ has launched its ‘It’s Live’ 2016 calendar of events in Queensland
Trade – Flight Centre Expo’s – mentor 2 day intensive sessions being held in Brisbane with representativesRoma, Mt. Isa and Eromanga
Trip Advisor – Mid -January road show
Tourism Awards – how can we do it better – eg:submissions - judges?
Visits by judges - Natalie Flecker advised when Mt. Isa Rodeois judged they have had success – creditability study – 5 min video with submission may work. Fairest way at Awards is to list all nominees
Debrief from Barcaldine Tourism awards: Issues with FOC’s needs to be addressed– Need for an engine booking system on our website through the OQTA website to enable problems to be fixed by OQTA – our membership process is very clunky. OQTA to use PayPal system
ASIC - Office of Fair Trading forms to be completed of new office bearers
Outback Mates – for members only and othersinterested persons need to join. McKinlay VIC staff advised they have experienced problems with the mates process
Overview of Outback Mates Program – Cost of $50 to become part of the Outback Mates club and each person gets a membership number. Corresponding App – card or both or can be linked to each other. Inside of passport will be maps and android and will be IPhone friendly. APP can be downloaded for free
Roadshow begins in January for Outback Mates. Mates when arriving into a town their App will show deals and by going to the VIC’s they can also get dealseg: 2 for 1 or 5% discount
Natalie to send through information of person she knows re: selling products
App– as soon as the visitor walks into the VICs they will have free Wfiiand will be able to be tracked where they have travelled. They will still have registration for win the prizes. Log in by each person when payment is made name emailaddress and phone number and app will download from inside the VIC – VIC’s receive a 50% discount on the purchase of each card.
Outback Mates – Suggestion - get your family an outback mates as a Xmas present.
RACQ – Major Sponsorship of $25,000 and branding by RACQ – Promotion to punch out to 1.5million RACQ members – discount offered of $40 to RACQ members
Do we need bar codes – magnetic strips – BP Service Stations love the idea of the reward card – BP advised that no magnetic strip is needed and advisable to have a barcode. BP to send a letter of recommendation for OQTA. BP service stations may need to become a member and for $200 enables the businesses to receive free listing on ATDW
Good deals to be done – systems foolproof and card needs to be tested for loop holes
Matt Bron – TEQ Report
Ninemsn site – TEQ receiving huge number of readers especially the Outback Road trips receiving 44% votes to date. Tourism Destination to buy a section of the Ninemsn
Qld Airports Limited has completed a survey at two of the owned airports – Longreach & Mt. Isa. Interesting facts – age demographics 41+ visitor – visitors staying 1 -4 days – 26% for business and 15% for VFR – 40% for leisure – 19% other
Winton missing the market with major attractions - AAOD 54% and WMC 51% (Non Visited Scale) through limited visit ability in Longreach
High accommodation satisfaction in Longreach 84% - 24% still book through travel agents – one way hire cars still ongoing problem
Mt Isa – Visitors relate the city to Newcastle – Need to be marketed more
Townsville a definite market for the Outback Qld. – Regional Express looking at packages
A New coach company to begin in Mt. Isa offering new tours/product and adding with flight packages.
Media consumption in Mt. Isa – Visitors go to On-line news, ABC Radio (23%) Hot FM (26%), Newspapers not a major option for visitors.
Action Item: Matt to distribute copy of survey report to members
FAR WEST – DELEGATE
A bi-election to be conducted for representatives for the Far West region and nominations to be sent out for this position Expressions of interest noted from Jodi Barr of Birdsville and Julie Woodhouse Boulia.
SKILLS REPS:
Discussion of Skills representation to OQTA Board
Steve Jones– Skill – Queensland Manager Rex Express
Stev.Ratray Qld. Sales Manager Imparja Television name was mentioned. Media advertising person and has a passion for the Outback Region and assists many community groups with contra sponsorship deals. Steve would have great network skills.
Steve Jones mentioned Michelle Hespe - Ex- Inflight Magazine editor – good social media but now based in Sydney. Michelle could be good for advice.
Profiles to be send to the board
Action Item – SteveRatray of Imparja TV to be contacted
Action item - Leave for further discussion and Board to discuss skill positions
Elaine Jacobi to continue as treasurer and not as a board member
Meeting Dates 2016
February Face to Face meeting Brisbane – suggested date Friday 12th Feb - provisional
ATRNConference – Set for October 4th -8th 2016 in Roma
OUTBACK MATES CARDS
Qld. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to receive card No.1 Outback Mates and Tourism Minister Kate Jones to receive card No. 2.
VISITOR INFORMATION CENTRE’S –To receive 20x FOC Outback Mates cards and to be usedwhichever way they wish
Mini Mates Card – something for the kids – suggestion – maybe the education subsidy could use the cards a part of the APP eg: play games – Hashtag mates!!
Outback Mates cards will be available for locals as well
Action Item – Cards to be sent to Qld. Premier and Tourism Minister
Meeting Closed 10.25am
ACTION ITEMS SUMMARY
TITLE / ACTION / BY WHOMInterest Bearing account for excess funds / Present at the next board meeting options for moving monies to a higher interest bearing account. / Peter/Elaine/Financial Sub Committee
Letter to Minister Tourism / Core finding RTO’s / Peter and Karen to draft
Investment as a result of Education Programme / Peter and Matt to supply details of the investment by AB Paterson School and report to board. / Peter/Matt
Kangaroo Buslines / Agenda item for next meeting - How much do they make from our efforts and their investment / Peter
Financial Sub Committee Minutes / Notes from minutes to go into Board Papers
Dot point on Objectives of the finance Committee as a Board Policy / Peter & Elaine
ASIC Forms after AGM / ASIC forms – to be sent after AGM from the Outback Office / Peter/New Secretary
ARTN CONFERENCE ROMA / Outback Pack to be developed for the ARTN - TEQ have some great items in their ‘cupboard’ (Prefer not to use the surfboard key ring more outback ones (could operators donate key rings?) / All Board and Peter – Members may like to donate
Board Member Kit / Double check that the Board Membership papers are up to date items / Jane/Peter
Growing mates to its full potential / New Board to consider requirements for growing mates / New Board/ Peter/Matt
Contestable Funding / Keep back up material on success and potential growth to be included in Grant Funding application / Peter
OUT BACK MATES /
- Ensure there is an allocated line item in the budget to grow Mates.
- Peter to prepare material and book presentations with Councils
- Think about a kids programme for Mates plus the older teenagers
OUTBACK WIDE GOLF EVENT / List of golf courses IN THE OUTBACK. Come games plus some quirky stuff. Eg. Tee off from Vaughan Johnson jump up.
Thoughts and idea in what members could contribute to ideas. AGENDA ITEM NEXT BOARD MEETING / Peter
Tourism Awards
Nominations to hold the event / 2015 Year one nominations on the table at the awards nomination for 2016 and 2017 – Workshops and theme. / Peter
Pre-AGM Minutes / Jane Morgan to email / Jane/Robyn
QAL Survey / Matt Bron to distribute to Members / Matt
Stev. Rattray / Skill Rep / Peter
Outback Mates Cards / Qld. Premier & Tourism Minister / Peter