Craig Turner

Tourism Whitsundays CEO Craig Turner has had a long and varied career in tourism, having first started working in hospitality on Hamilton Island in 1995. He then spent eight years working for Fantasea Cruises, first as operations manager on Hamilton Island and then as Director of Sales & Marketing. He was also Deputy Chairman of the Tourism Whitsundays board at this time. Having studied marketing at Monash University, Craig was engaged by Tourism Whitsundays as Marketing Manager in 2005. He then worked for Bowen Shire Council as Tourism Manager before spending two years running Airlie Cove Resort and Van Park. In 2010, Craig set up charter boat catering company Chef’s Cuisine. He also continued to run the business he’d bought in 2003, the Bowen Subway Restaurant, adding to this by also building the Proserpine Subway Restaurant and buying a shopping complex in Bowen, where he set up the town’s first Red Rooster. In May 2016 he went back into the tourism industry full-time, becoming CEO of Tourism Whitsundays, where he is focussed on not only increasing visitation but also generating increased length of stay and driving visitor spend in region. Craig has an outcomes driven approach and aims to deliver return on investment for all stakeholders, while adhering to Best Practice, maintaining professional standards and marketing the region to the world efficiently. Craig’s long-term goal is to see Tourism Whitsundays become one of the leading RTOs in Queensland, with a view to creating enduring commercial success for operators, while ensuring that the environment everyone treasures - including some of the best natural attractions in the world - is maintained.