New Eco Friendly Accommodation in Cairns
A step towards satisfying the growing demand for eco-friendly accommodation in Cairns has been made thanks to a $110,000 grant from the Australian Government.
Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson AM MP, today congratulated the Big4 Cairns Crystal Cascades Holiday Park on successfully creating new environmentally-friendly accommodation with funding provided under the T-QUAL Grants program.
“Developing eco-friendly accommodation makes sense- the operating costs are often lower for owners, while visitors can stay in highly attractive nature based areas without leaving a heavy environmental impact,” Minister Ferguson said.
The T-QUAL funding has allowed the creation of a new low-impact, solar-powered accommodation unit integrated with the World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest environment.
“Crystal Cascades owners Jenine and Russell Drayton have matched Government funding for the project, which will serve as the prototype for a new model of accommodation at the holiday park,” Minister Ferguson said.
“The unit provides educational interpretation to inform visitors of the environmental benefits of its various components and outlines the holiday park’s overall commitment to protecting and enhancing its surroundings.
“It responds to growth in demand for sustainable accommodation, including direct requests from the holiday park’s customers.”
Senator for Queensland, Jan McLucas, welcomed the funding and the benefits it would provide to the local tourism industry.
“About 1.6 million domestic overnight trips and 612,000 international trips were made to Cairns in the year ending March 2012, spending about $1.8 billion and $792 million respectively,” Senator McLucas said.
“There were close to 4,000 tourism businesses in the region in 2010-11. This funding will help to ensure there are even more reasons for tourists to visit Cairns and support local businesses.”
Site clearing and preparation, building installation, connection of services and landscaping for the unit has been completed and the new facility is now open for business.
The project was one of 117 successful applications in the 2011 round of T-QUAL Grants which were offered a total of $8.5 million in funding.
Applications for the 2012 program closed in April this year and the successful projects will be announced in the second half of the year.
Source: Accommodation Association of Australia, 6 August 2012
