The City of Launceston council will give the Australian Tourism Awards $50,000 to install a temporary marquee over the Cataract Gorge Pool.
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At Monday’s council meeting, all aldermen at the meeting unanimously voted to give the organisers the funds.
A 55 metre by 20 metre marquee will be installed over the pool for the national award ceremony that will be held in Launceston in March 2019.
The marquee is more expensive because the installation is “labour intensive”, and cannot be completed by a machine.
Scaffolding for the marquee will be installed in the pool.
Alderman Robin McKendrick said the awards would be tremendous for Launceston and happily supported the proposal.
“Being only the second time it has been held outside a capital city says a lot about our city,” he said.
Alderman Ted Sands the event would give great exposure to Launceston.
Alderman Danny Gibson congratulated Tourism Northern Tasmania for securing the event.
“This city is going to have a spotlight shone on it,” he said.
The meeting also revealed the awards would be streamed lived across the nation.
More than 800 of the nation’s best tourism operators are set to attend the 2019 event, along with tourism industry representatives.
The annual event normally sells out and organisers are expecting the Launceston instalment of the awards to be no different.
Uluru is the only other location, that is not a capital city, to hold the awards.
Aldermen Jim Cox, Darren Alexander, Hugh Mackenzie and mayor Albert van Zetten were not at the meeting.