The state government is working to fill a void that could result in thousands of $ 200 travel vouchers sitting on refrigerators instead of converting to tourism dollars.

More than 100,000 people entered the Cairns Holiday Dollars ballot to win one of the 15,000 vouchers that can be used for travel experiences such as reef and rainforest tours.

However, winners are not required to redeem the vouchers and cannot give them to friends or family members. This means that a large part could theoretically go unused if people decide not to travel to the region.

Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe (below) immediately rejected the idea, saying: “You would not apply if you did not want to go to Cairns.”

Mark Olsen from TTNQ, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, ALP member for Cairns Michael Healy, Minister for Tourism Stirling Hinchliffe and Daniel Gschwind from QTIC talk about the $ 200 voucher, which should help attract tourism to Cairns. Pic Peter Wallis

However, another government spokesman confirmed that contingency planning was ongoing, despite the government believing the vast majority would be repaid.

The leftover money will either be added to Tourism Tropical North Queensland’s marketing budget or TTNQ will have the option to run a second chance raffle if the numbers are high enough.

Only 2,000 of the 15,000 vouchers were given to locals who would likely have a better strike rate when redeeming reef trips as they would not have to travel.

Regardless of the intake, TTNQ is the big winner, with some valuable cream on top of the $ 3 million program.

The sign up process has identified the details of 106,212 potential travelers from across Queensland who are now receiving direct marketing material in their emails – a list worth gold in.

Originally published as Hidden Gap in Cairns Tourism Cash Voucher Deal

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