Sharon’s finger is on the pulse of tourism in South East Queensland
Posted by editor (editor) on May 17 2009
2009 >>

Raising the profile of Moreton Bay and country areas, whilst positioning Brisbane as an emerging ‘new world’ city, are key priorities for Brisbane and South East Queensland country, Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor said today.

“Sharon Raguse, Tourism Queensland’s newly appointed tourism director for Brisbane and South East Queensland Country is off to flying start,” said Mr Lawlor.

“Ms Raguse has been working closely with Brisbane and regional operators, strengthening relationships and providing advice to Tourism Queensland about how they can best help these operators.

“More than 7.6 million domestic and international tourists visited the Brisbane and South East Queensland Country zone in 2008, providing support for 48,000 Queensland jobs.

“In September the State Government announced a number of changes to Queensland’s tourism network, which included defining seven specific tourism zones across the state, of which Brisbane and South East Queensland Country is one.

“As part of the changes, existing Brisbane-based regional director positions which looked after the state’s tourism regions were redeployed to live and work within the regions.

“Being based in the regions, has allowed the directors to provide a much stronger conduit between Tourism Queensland, their regional and local tourism organisations, local councils, industry and other key stakeholders.”

Ms Raguse said she has hit the ground running playing a key role in assisting tourism operators affected by the recent oil spill.

“I’ve been working closely with operators in Moreton Bay to maximise the benefits of Tourism Queensland’s ‘Open for Business’ campaign and to ensure adverse side effects of the spill were minimised,” she said.

“Even though I’m based in the Brisbane head office, I spend time throughout the Brisbane region, Moreton Bay and South East Queensland country areas, as the needs of these areas are all quite diverse.

“In the South East Queensland country, the majority of providers are small businesses, so I’m assisting them to develop and position their products to capture a greater share of the market.

“We’re working towards establishing country areas as eco-tourism destinations, including sustainable, farm and nature-based tourism programs.”

Mr Lawlor said Sharon was previously the Tourism Development Manager for Brisbane Marketing.

“With more than nine years’ experience in the tourism and hospitality industry, Sharon is experienced in product and tourism infrastructure development, investment attraction, strategic planning and partnership development,” he said.

Mr Lawlor said the new regionally-based positions were created in response to the Queensland tourism network review late last year which identified the need for a greater ‘on the ground’ connection between local tourism industry, Tourism Queensland and the State Government.

For further information telephone: 3535 5588

Last changed: Oct 06 2009 at 2:41 PM