TOURISM BOSS CALLS FOR PREMIER TO RUN TOURISM PORTFOLIO

THE chief executive of Australia’s fastest growing online accommodation and flights booker believes the tourism portfolio in Queensland should be the personal responsibility of the Premier.

Come Election Day on March 24, Wotif CEO Robbie Cooke (pictured) says the elected Premier should step up and take the portfolio more seriously if the Sunshine State’s one-time key economic driver is to return to its former powerhouse status.

Cooke, who employs 450 staff, cites New Zealand as a country that understands the significance of the sector with Prime Minister John Key responsible for its tourism portfolio.

“New Zealand is a country that gets it right and has taken the industry to the level that it needs to be – and I would love a Premier in Queensland to run with a similar strategy,” he says.

“TQ (Tourism Queensland) gets a limited budget, but the industry would be seen as more key to the economy if the Premier made it his or her own. Victoria does it better than Queensland.”

Wotif sold one in every 10 Australian hotel beds slept in for the half year ending December 2011 and was again ranked as the No.1 Travel - Destinational and Accommodation site in Australia for the eighth consecutive year by independent ratings agency Hitwise.

The company recorded revenues of $134.2 million in the 2011 financial year.

Read the full story on Wotif along with Brisbane’s Top 50 publicly listed companies in the annual Brisbane Business News top companies edition out now.

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