The 50th anniversary of Tourism Tropical North Queensland was celebrated at the 2025 Qantas and Jetstar TNQ Tourism Industry Excellence Awards held at the Cairns Convention Centre on 24 October. Three hundred and fifty guests attended the gala event, including the organisation’s first chair George Chapman and general manager Bill Cummings.
Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ) chair John O’Sullivan said TTNQ represented a trailblazing local industry sector built with personal investment and innovation by legends who worked together to form the region’s first tourism body, the Far North Queensland Development Bureau Limited which was registered on 12 September 1975.
“Over the past five decades there have been many visionaries and their legacy continues with Tropical North Queensland’s tourism industry developed by family businesses whose owners were proud to live and work in this region,” he said. “They understood that marketing the destination together was the way forward and this mantra of hunting as a pack set them apart from their competitors.”
TTNQ chief executive officer Mark Olsen spoke about the organisation’s proud history as the oldest and largest regional tourism organisation in Australia and the many people who had helped to develop a world-class destination embracing its World Heritage assets.
“History is an invaluable teacher and so we pause in the 50th year of Tourism Tropical North Queensland to look back at five decades of passion, innovation and resilience that have transformed Tropical North Queensland into the A$4.5bn powerhouse of today,” he said.
Guests received a commemorative history booklet of TTNQ titled ‘Hunting as a Pack’ and a new perpetual trophy, the Robbie Bastion Award for Inbound Marketing, was launched recognising the individual, team or campaign demonstrating the hunting as a pack philosophy of putting the destination first. The trophy is in memory of the late Robbie Bastion, one of the destination’s key Road Warriors who spent much of his time overseas selling the destination.
The winners of 2025 Qantas and Jetstar TNQ Tourism Industry Excellence Awards included: TTNQ Life Members John Morris and Cheryl Kelly, as well as awards for Tony George, Megan Bell, James Egan and Simon Rooke. While the Chair’s Award for Excellence went to Singapore Airlines and the Sustainable Tourism Excellence Award went to Wings Cairns Tours.
Andrew Steel won the Robbie Bastion Award for Inbound Marketing and the Best of Queensland Experience Excellence Award went to FNQ Nature Tours for a third year in a row.
