Grandcare Systems Pty Ltd and their Gold Coast Hinterland Treehouse resort have had their application for a Tourism Quality grant approved.
The Gold Coast Hinterland Treehouse resort will be an Eco-tourism development located at Austinville aimed at a mid to high level luxury eco-tourism market.
The profits of the Tourism Quality grant will go towards the construction of tree houses and hobbit houses as part of the resorts rainforest experience.
Federal Member for Wright, Scott Buchholz was pleased to see a local business getting a helping hand and gaining recognition in what was a very competitive group of applicants.
This grant program is all about helping tourism operators create more local tourism destinations which are nationally and internationally competitive,
Only 88 tourism business from the entire country were successful in having their application granted which makes this recognition a wonderful achievement for the local tourism industry said Mr Buchholz.
Tourism businesses from across the nation will share in grants worth approximately $8.5 million under a scheme designed to improve the quality of the visitor experience in Australia, known as the T?QUAL GrantsTourism Quality Projects (TQP) Program.
To be successful in the application round, tourism operators had to show how they would use the funds to create innovative projects which were of high quality.
The 2013 round of grants will be the final round for the Tourism Quality Projects program making way for new and improved grant programs to stimulate the tourism industry.
Mr Buchholz said government grants were an important way of providing certainty to the tourism sector which has been steadily declining for a range of reasons.
The tourism sector was one of Australias real economic strengths but it had faced challenging times recently, partly on account of a persistently high dollar,
The Government is looking at other ways to deliver tourism grants through targeted demand-driver infrastructure but we are still in a consultation phase. We will seek to ensure the benefits of any government investment can be multiplied across the tourism sector, including accommodation, aviation and hospitality said Mr Buchholz.
