$347,500 boost

WHITSUNDAYS Marketing and Development has been given a $347,500 boost following the announcement of the State Government's Regional Tourism Organisations (RTO) contestable funding scheme.

Newly appointed Chief Executive Officer Danial Rochford said the organisation had successfully applied for four major projects aimed at boosting tourist expenditure in the region.

"The contestable funding offered by the Government sees our local industry, Whitsunday Regional Council and ourselves put up funding that is matched dollar for dollar to deliver tourism marketing projects that will contribute towards the Government's 2020 tourism goals," Mr Rochford said.

"We have been successful in gaining funding for stage one of our regional events attraction strategy, a re-launch of Whitsundays Business Events, and two very large marketing campaigns - an interstate 'Whitsundays on Sale' campaign, and an extension of the already existing and very successful 'Love the Whitsundays' campaign in Mackay and Townsville," he said.

"On top of that, we joined with Capricorn Enterprise and six other RTOs to be awarded funding to develop a mobile friendly version of our website."

Across the State, 28 projects were approved of almost 50 applications for the RTO Contestable Grant Scheme worth $3.89m.

"We are very excited to be able to deliver these projects and look forward to seeing the results here on the ground in the next six months," Mr Rochford said.

Projects supported

Whitsundays Events Attraction Strategy - Phase 1: $60,000

Whitsundays on Sale campaign: $155,000

Whitsundays business events re-launch: $90,000

Love the Whitsundays campaign: $42,500