Mr WETTENHALL (Wednesday 24 March 2010) (11.36 am): The Bligh government has recently made available $3 million in contestable grant funding for a range of tourism projects across the state. The Queensland Tourism Network Grant Scheme will allocate $3 million over the next three years as part of a commitment to help the state's tourism organisations develop a stronger and more cohesive network. The grants will be available to a range of not-for-profit tourism groups, including regional and local tourism organisations, local government tourism departments and divisions and tourism associations that are members of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council.

The aim of the grants is to fund projects that will enable these organisations to streamline their current operations, for example, by merging with other tourism bodies, or for organisations to collaborate on new tourism marketing or product development initiatives that are not already part of their core operations.

We want to encourage tourism organisations to think outside their business-as-usual squares and come to us with proposals that will help them build a stronger and more efficient tourism network in Queensland.

There is no minimum or maximum grant amount that tourism organisations can apply for. Rather, submissions will be assessed on the value of the project to their overall region or to the state.

There are two main categories for eligible projects: those that are associated with implementing mergers between tourism organisations and those tourism organisations that have collaborated on new marketing, industry and/or product development projects.

We envisage that competition will be quite fierce amongst applicants and I therefore encourage those wishing to apply to put forward their best case.

Tourism is one of our state's key economic drivers, with more than 222,000 Queenslanders owing their living to the tourism industry. Last year was one of the most challenging ever for the $9 billion tourism industry.

That is why the Bligh government has responded with this program and an election commitment of an additional $36 million to assist the industry over the next three years.