A mighty oak from a little acorn

On March 11, 1985, the Queenstown Promotion Bureau registered as an incorporated society, employing one person with voluntary membership and no funding.

Twenty-five years later, QPB is known as Destination Queenstown, and is now recognised as a major force in marketing of the resort.

DQ chairman Mark Quickfall said the quarter-century milestone was a good time to reflect on the successes and growth of the organisation and Queenstown's coming of age as a tourism destination.

"DQ evolved from a group of operators that wanted to promote Queenstown's appeal to a wide range of visitors, a much wider range than the tour groups it had previously mainly attracted.

"As DQ grew to develop that wide range of markets and represent an even wider range of members, it never lost its core values of working collectively to represent all tourism operators, large and small, and to work in conjunction with the aspirations of the local community.

"To this day, it is directed by a volunteer board overseen by an annually-selected strategic review board."

Mr Quickfall had served several terms as chairman over two separate periods and said it had been "amazing" to watch the successes, changes and growth.

"We have seen fundamental shifts in the global environment and astounding visitor-number growth [up to an annual rate of 12% in 2000] followed by a rapid slowing of growth.

"We've been buffeted by crises such as 9/11, swine flu, Sars and recession, and witnessed the phenomenal growth of our town with its attendant development and upgrading.

"Throughout, our members have supported the development of strategic plans setting our direction and feeding into our annual business plans.

"Issues and successes have come and gone and what has remained is a robust organisation that enjoys debate and action within the collective and has had the good fortune to deal with problems of growth rather than those of decline."

DQ chief executive Tony Everitt said the organisation's ability to respond to market conditions in a collective way was renowned throughout the tourism industry, and placed it at the forefront of New Zealand Regional Tourism Organisations (RTOs).

Other regions had realised the benefits of tourism market development and were providing healthy competition in terms of their level of investment and innovation, he said.

"I'm the newest member of DQ but it's great to come into an organisation with such a proud heritage.

"Our challenge for the next 25 years will be to maintain that leadership position as an organisation and as a visitor destination."