Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to highlight the winners of the Tropical North Queensland Tourism Industry Excellence Awards, which were held last Friday evening in the Rainforestation Nature Park at Kuranda. More than 170 people gathered to celebrate the industry's excellence in innovation by acknowledging the people and businesses at the forefront of tourism in our region. It was great to see so many people from the tourism industry coming together to enjoy themselves in each other's company for an evening, especially given the widely publicised hardships faced by the industry over the last 18 months.

Back Country Bliss Adventures received the Best of Queensland Experience Excellence Award, and Shanice Dale from BIG4 Ingenia Holidays Cairns Coconut received the Customer Service Excellence Award. Weiqing Jacky Ni received the Young Achiever Excellence Award, and Juan Walker from Walkabout Cultural Adventures received the Year of Indigenous Tourism Award. James Dixon, co-founder and managing director of Down Under Tours, received the Outstanding Contribution by an Individual award, and the amazing Cairns Indigenous Art Fair received the Chair's Award for Excellence. Stephen Gregg and Wendy Morris were rightly awarded life membership for their passionate dedication and commitment to our region's tourism sector.

Finally, I'd like to take the opportunity to congratulate all the winners, runners-up and finalists in this year's awards. It's people like you who make our tourism industry the best in our nation.