ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Queenslanders have been offered a once in a lifetime opportunity today to visit parts of the country that they’d seldom otherwise go to.
A federal subsidy for airline tickets is aimed at bringing tourists back to Queensland from interstate but the government didn’t want people from the nation’s Smart State to be left out.
Which is why, from next month, Queenslanders will be able to get themselves half-price tickets to places like Launceston.
“It’s essentially a colder version of Ipswich,” said Nationals Leader Michael McCormack today in Sydney.
“Much, much colder. But Launceston has nice things near it, such as green hills and Ricky Ponting’s childhood home. Queenslanders, for the most part, haven’t really gone to places like Launceston in the past and this new federal subsidy will help change that,”
“Flights from Brisbane to Launceston will begin next month. Queenslanders will also be able to fly to Uluru but I guess everyone up there has already been there so Launceston is the real focus here.”
A recent survey by Tourism Australia found that only six Queensland resident has been to Launceston and one of them, Marc Steiger from Betoota Heights, spoke briefly to The Advocate about his experience.
“I saw a bunch of kids from a car battery off the King’s Bridge onto the roof of a pleasure cruiser,” he said.
“They could’ve killed someone,”
“Other than that, it was pretty nice there.”
More to come.
