DQ to celebrate 30 years of efforts

Graham Budd.
Graham Budd.
New Zealand's longest established regional tourism organisations is planning to mark its 30th anniversary with a reunion.

Destination Queenstown, established three decades ago as the Queenstown Promotion Bureau, will hold its anniversary celebration in March.

Chief executive Graham Budd said the organisation began as an incorporated society with one employee and no funding.

It now employs 13 staff, is governed by an independently-elected board representing various sectors, markets domestically, in Australia and in long-haul markets and is one of New Zealand's most successful regional tourism organisations.

Mr Budd said commercial visitor nights had grown to more than 3 million per annum, injecting $1.37billion of tourism expenditure into the district's economy every year.

The milestone was the ''perfect opportunity'' to acknowledge those who had worked for DQ over the last 30 years.

''DQ evolved from a group of local operators who banded together to promote Queenstown, with a collective voice, to attract visitors.

''It's worth celebrating the foresight of a group of people with the vision to make Queenstown the internationally renowned visitor destination that it is today.''

Former staff, or board members were invited to attend the dinner, being held on March 18.

They can register at www.queenstownnz.co.nz/information/dq30

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