- Thursday 01 December 2016
A new chair and new director have been appointed to the board of Visit Sunshine Coast (VSC).
David Ryan had been elected as the new chair, replacing Grant Hunt, who stepped down following the completion of his three-year term.
Mr Ryan is a Sunshine Coast resident who brings an extensive history of executive and board positions in major financial organisations and tourism groups.
He was a non-executive director of Virgin
Blue and fulfilled a number of roles over a 15-year period with the Virgin
Group, culminating in his appointment to the Global Advisory Board of the
Virgin Group.
Since joining the VSC board in 2015, Mr Ryan has been chairman of
the VSC Risk Management and Audit Committee.
In other board changes, long-serving board member Ian McNicol stood down after six years, and will be replaced by Ashley Howden and Fraser Green was reappointed unopposed in the member-elected director’s position.
The new appointments were announced as Sunshine Coast Airport revealed that it has attracted over one million annual passenger movements for the first time.
New VSC Chair, David Ryan, said the Airport’s stellar performance had contributed significantly to the region’s 2015/2016 tourism success.
With the drive market complementing the growth in air traffic, the
Sunshine Coast grew its domestic visitor numbers by 7.8% to 3.1 million for the
year, and expenditure grew by 6.2% to $1.9 billion, the region’s best domestic
figures in over a decade.
The international market recorded 3.5% growth to
366,000 visitors and expenditure increased by 26.7% to $245.3 million for
2015/16.
To access a copy of the 2015/2016 Visit Sunshine Coast
Annual Report go to: www.visitsunshinecoast.com/corporate
Photo: David Ryan (left) with Simon Latchford