Why give TW $140K when it can get over $500K annually?

If the membership of our local RTO (Regional Tourism Organisation) today represented around 30% of the businesses in the region, (as it was at the beginning of the decade), then Tourism Whitsundays would be collecting over $500,000 more annually in revenue from subscriptions than it is currently.

This is more than 3 times the 'one off' $140,000 payment proposed by the QLD Leader of the Opposition recently.

In the past 8 years, membership of Tourism Whitsundays has plummeted from over one third of the businesses in the region represented, to less than 10%.

Wouldn't it be 'smarter' to have an RTO the local businesses had confidence in, which would increase membership, and therefore bring in recurring revenue from enterprise, rather than a one-off hand out funded by the taxpayer?

QLD Leader of the Opposition's email 4 Mar 2009