My name is Michael Nelson and I own and operate Etch Tourism Marketing.

I began my career in Tourism and Hospitality in 1992 with Sheraton Hotels and after time spent at both the Sheraton Brisbane Hotel and Towers and the Sheraton Wentworth in Sydney, I moved to Cairns to participate in the opening of the newly developed Green Island Resort with the Daikyo Group. I became instrumental in the successful opening of the resorts Food and Beverage outlets with time spent as the Restaurant Manager of the resorts signature restaurant Emeralds, before moving to head up the Food and Beverage department as Restaurants and Bars Manager in 1997.

After several years in this position, I was offered the position of Island Operations Manager of Fitzroy Island Resort, also a member of the Daikyo Group and the sister property to Green Island Resort. While at Fitzroy, I was successful in bringing a stability to the resort in all operational and financial matters, which culminated in the resort winning the 1998 Tourism Tropical North Queensland Award for Best Budget Accommodation.

In March 1999 I left Fitzroy Island to take charge of a newly refurbished Food and Beverage department at the Mercure Hotel Harbourside. After completing the refurbishment and successfully re-opening the property's F & B outlets, I returned to Daikyo Group as a member of the Sales and Marketing department for Green Island Resort and Great Adventures, responsible for the UK, Europe, Asia and Inbound Markets.

After several years of excellent results and market positioning I left Daikyo in 2002 to take up the role of Marketing Manager for Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park - Australia’s most awarded attraction. In my 5 years at Tjapukai, I was instrumental in some of the company’s major strategic decisions, the main one being the implementation of Tjapukai by Night in 2002, which allowed Tjapukai to successfully expand into markets that were not previously enjoyed by the park.

More recently a refresh of Tjapukai’s brand received accolades throughout the industry and secured Tjapukai’s place as the country’s leading indigenous attraction. As well as heading up the marketing side of Tjapukai, I also managed sales for the core markets of the UK, USA, Europe and Inbound where Tjapukai enjoys widespread support.

All of these efforts were rewarded with Tjapukai winning the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) award for Australia’s Best Attraction in 2004 and in 2005 winning the Queensland Tourism Awards for Best Regional Attraction.

In 2006 I began Etch Tourism Marketing. Since then we been fortunate in working with some of the most dynamic products that tourism has to offer in Australia. We continue to stand by our principle of maintaining a small portfolio of products to offer a personalised and dedicated service that most importantly, produces results.

From this experience in the industry, I have developed and retained secure relationships with major wholesalers in the USA, UK, Europe and within the Inbound industry in Australia as well as RTO, STO’s and NTO’s.

I am a member of the Executive Committee for the North Queensland branch of ATEC and am a member of the Strategic Panel for the Western Hemisphere.

My wife Suzi is a partner in Etch Marketing and, together with our 3 children, we continue to make Cairns and Tropical North Queensland our home.





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