It was one amongst many awards for outback Queensland tourist enterprises and follows Kinnon & Co’s top honours in the Cultural Tourism and Standard Accommodation categories at last week’s Outback Queensland Tourism Awards.
Owner of the Longreach company and present day outback pioneer, Richard Kinnon, said everyone at Kinnon & Co is delighted to receive this award and to be recognised as leaders in creating unique tourism products for Queensland.
“We really want Australians and overseas visitors to put outback Queensland on their tourist map,” Richard said.
“The more we can do to create distinctive experiences and accommodation, the more we can attract visitors who would otherwise miss out on this iconic part of Australia.
“We want people to associate Queensland with a heritage outback experience as well as with beaches and rainforests.
“We congratulate Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, Cobbold Gorge and the many other outback operators who won last night and helped show why tourists should come and visit us in the outback.”
During the awards ceremony, Richard Kinnon also announced the company’s new Outback Pioneers brand, which has been created to help promote outback Queensland as a unique world-class experience.
“We are inviting people to unleash their own pioneering spirit in outback Queensland and we are building a world-class experience so we attract more visitors and help support the whole community,” Richard said.
For the Kinnon family’s business, this award is the latest in a string of tourism awards that have recognised their ingenuity and dedication to tourism excellence.
The Kinnon & Co business started a decade ago to help the family subsidise its grazing business and has grown to become an famous feature of the Longreach region, welcoming around 25,000 visitors a year to a range of experiences and heritage-inspired accommodation. The Kinnon family is still very much at the heart of it all, sharing their own stories as well as their passion for life on the land and for the pioneers who came before them.
“We thank QTA for for helping us get the word out about what we’re doing out west through these awards,” Richard Kinnon said.
“It means a lot to us that this award will help attract more people to Longreach where we can share our Australian outback and inspire them to help us preserve its way of life for the future.”