The Gateway to the Great Barrier Reef launched a tourism campaign in order to attract more than 4,000 extra visitors to the Mon Repos turtle rookery.

The $200,000 turtle campaign focuses on the south-east Queensland area for its local tourists and on the United Kingdom for its international tourists. The North Burnett Tourism expects more than 30,000 people to visit the rookery from November until the end of March 2011.

General manager James Corvan is aiming for a 10 to 15 percent increase in tourist numbers this season. Corvan said, “Even though we do hear that, there's a lot of economic growth happening at the moment... It's taking a while to get through to areas like tourism, so it's been a tough year across Australia for tourism.”

The meager budget for the season prompted the tourism board to turn to cost-efficient mediums such as the worldwide web. Corvan said, “We certainly can't afford to advertise but the use of digital marketing, websites, email, e-newsletters and so forth, is making that easier for us to do and the costs are also better in terms of us getting some efficiencies.”

The rookery is found in the Mon Repos Conservation Park and is a nesting ground for the endangered loggerhead turtle. The endangered species along with the greenback, flatback, and leatherback adult turtles come to shore to lay eggs during the rookery season.