Selling the solar eclipse

North Queensland will experience the Solar Eclipse in November 2012.

Fed-up selling the same old destinations and packages? Bored of recommending the bog standard icons — Eiffel Tower, Pyramids of Giza and the Statue of Liberty — to visit?

Well, tropical North Queensland in Australia may be able to light up your working life. In 2012, the destination will experience one of the world’s great astronomical events — a total solar eclipse.

On the morning of November 14, the earth will be plunged into darkness as the moon passes in front of the sun. This remarkable event is destined to be one of life’s awe-inspiring moments, so even the most discerning traveller will be excited by this prospect.

But if you want to get your clients booked, you’d better be quick as a crack team of tourism professionals from North Queensland - spanning restaurateurs, tourism marketing professionals, music festival specialists and coach, airline and reef tour operators — are already working on a campaign to maximise the tourism potential of the event.

Group spokesman, Todd Parker of Parker Travel Collection said: “In December 2002, the Solar Eclipse at the small township of Ceduna in South Australia attracted more than 40,000 people — which as a destination was considered the prime observation point.

“Given the 2012 eclipse will pass directly over areas within tropical North Queensland, we are confident of attracting the same number of observers at the very least. “With the possibility of coastal cloud cover affecting visibility, it has believed the best place to view the eclipse will be on the Tablelands and out on the Great Barrier Reef,” he said.

So, it’s time to get cracking and offer some creative corporate and FIT packages to the Solar Eclipse before hotels get sold out.

Tourism Queensland is now represented in the GCC by Andrew Oldfield.