Toowoomba’s Carnival of Flowers extended an extraordinary run of success by winning the hotly contested Major Festivals and Events category at the Queensland Tourism Awards in Brisbane.
Toowoomba Regional Council (TRC) Tourism and Events portfolio leader Cr Geoff McDonald said the win was a fantastic achievement by Council’s Carnival organising team and the countless volunteers who supported the event.
“Carnival’s undoubted and growing popular appeal has been acknowledged further by this industry recognition,†Cr McDonald said.
“This is the first year Carnival has been entered in the Major Events category which matched it against the top events in Queensland,”Cr McDonald said.
“The award was for the 2014 Carnival, which marked the 65th edition of the country’s longest continuously running horticultural event. In 2014 Council hosted 18 flagship Carnival events with an incredible supporting program of 80 community-run events.”
“In that year 112,000 patrons, including 63,000 people from outside the Toowoomba region, attended functions across 10 days of festivities.”
“With an economic return in the vicinity of $30 million, Carnival is a major economic driver for Toowoomba and the region.
The organising team has worked hard to promote the food, wine and artistic creations of our region against the mainstay backdrop of the civic and private gardens, which are world renowned.
The Carnival program caters for all age groups and Council is working to improve the range and quality of attractions across the board. This award also proves that a regional event has all the ingredients to offer a fantastic stay for interstate and international tourists.
Ideally, these visitors would take the time to explore the wider region and be surprised to see other great SE Queensland attractions.â€
Cr McDonald said the win topped an incredible 18 months of achievement in which Carnival last month won the events category at the Parks and Leisure Australia (PLA) National Awards in Sydney.
The Carnival of Flowers also won the events category at the 2014 Australian Tourism Awards and a gold award at last’s year’s Queensland Tourism Awards (events and festivals category).
TRC’s Tourism and Events coordinator Ross Begent and Carnival events coordinator Mel Kite accepted the award at the Brisbane Exhibition Centre.
