Before the Redland City Council commits more money to tourism and creates another body to oversee and to spend that money, there needs to be some mechanism to determine if residents think the Redlands is a tourist destination and has potential to sustain interest from visitors.

We know that North Stradbroke Island is a popular holiday destination and will continue to be. Does this mean that council should have a role in promoting and funding that destination? Alternatively should the whole process be left to tourist operators themselves?

To create a feeling and a reality that Redlands is a tourist destination, both the mainland and island residents need to think about their localities as not just their communities, but as potenetial tourist destinations.

Clearly, this is not the case across the board. Tourism operators, quite obviously focus on tourism, but that's the extent of the focus.

Some attempt needs to be made to educate our community about the role and benefits of tourism and then ascertain the extensive benetits this will inject into our community. Armed with this knowledge, then the local community will see the enormous advantages for the Redlands and move swiftly to embrace local tourism.