About Cairns Tourism Association

Cairns Tourism Association is an incorporated non-profit organisation. Its funds are derived almost entirely from membership fees and its committee is comprised of up to twelve volunteers from tourism and hospitality backgrounds who are committed to raising the awareness and standards of service in Cairns.

The CTA is largely dependent upon and highly indebted to its members and sponsors from Media, Travel, Tourism and Hospitality businesses. The association could not function without this support and in fact many of these have been providing support since the earliest days.

Visitors to Cairns are encouraged to provide feedback on the service they received while on holiday here through nomination forms which are widely circulated to Cairns based businesses. Completed forms are collected and reviewed monthly and a short list of up to 6 finalists are then interviewed by a judging panel. Ten functions are held each year where awards are presented to a monthly winner and a special mention prize and from these an Annual Award winner is selected and presented at the prestigious annual Kamsler Awards.

CTA - A short history

The Cairns Tourism Association (CTA) was formed in 1987 to promote excellence in service in Tourism and Hospitality.

The Kamsler Family is one of the best-known families in Cairns and from the famed early game fishing days to the era of international tourism, Mr Paul Kamsler Senior has been at the forefront of progress in Tropical North Queensland. This remarkable man, who has been accepted into the State Tourism Industry's Hall of Fame, had a battle on his hands when word got around in the 1980's that he was going to build a 12 story Hotel in Cairns. Locals shook their heads in wonder and said he'd gone troppo. Mr Kamsler chuckled "They all said the family was suffering sunstroke". But this decision proved to be one of the most visionary ever made in the region.

The annual award was named the Kamsler Award in 1998 in recognition of a family that were pioneers of Cairns tourism & hospitality.