It may be beautiful one day and perfect the next but Queensland is suffering declining tourism. File picture Source: Supplied

And Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor admits that many countries are clueless as to Queensland's whereabouts, despite government marketing body Tourism Queensland maintaining 14 international offices.

"It is a fact that a lot of people overseas don't know where Queensland is," Mr Lawlor said.

The state's $9.2 billion tourism industry has been in freefall for two years, bringing high unemployment to Cairns and pushing many operators to the brink of closure.

Federal agency Tourism Research Australia's latest yearly figures for Queensland reveal the profound extent of the visitor slump from Asia: India (-23 per cent), Japan (-12 per cent) and Taiwan (-10 per cent).

The UK market is down 4 per cent, followed closely by the US and Canada (-2 per cent).

The state is even on the nose with its No.1 source of foreign holiday-makers, New Zealand. More than 8000 fewer Kiwis (-2 per cent) travelled to Queensland in 2009-10, turning in droves to NSW and Victoria, where visits from across the ditch grew by a combined 10 per cent.

Mr Kennedy, one of the nation's most highly respected tourism entrepreneurs and administrators, slammed TQ's new $4.1 million brand featuring the catchphrase Queensland, Where Australia Shines.

"Anybody with a brain would realise they're out of ideas if that's the best they can come up with," Mr Kennedy said.

"It's not going to attract one visitor."

He said radical surgery was needed, such as stitching Brisbane and the Gold and Sunshine coasts into one tourism district, badging it "Pacific City" and selling it overseas in the same way Los Angeles and surrounds – including Anaheim, the home of Disneyland – were packaged.

"It's a tourism region, so give it a marketing name that can be promoted," he said.

"There's enormous fragmentation in the industry created by regions competing."

Mr Kennedy pointed to a flurry of activity from the late 1970s to the '90s, during which late-night trading, international hotels, theme parks, casinos and golf resorts were established.

"Since then, we've come to a bit of a stop," he said.

A former multiple Queensland island resort owner, Mr Kennedy helped found TQ (then known as the Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation) in 1979, later becoming its chairman.

In 1990, he led a wide-ranging inquiry for the Goss government into the direction of the statutory authority after earlier heading a review of the Australian Tourist Commission.

Last year, an independent audit of Queensland government organisations recommended abolishing Tourism Queensland – advice rejected by Premier Anna Bligh.

But Mr Kennedy claimed another "complete review" of state tourism was overdue, singling out TQ's "absolutely disastrous marketing".

Notwithstanding a brutal period for tourism – marked by the global financial crisis, swine flu, cyclones, oil spills and a strong Australian dollar – he said TQ remained "starved of funds" and the victim of political interference and expedience.

"The problem is that instead of giving the tourism money where they could incentivise regions (that need it), governments in Queensland have been funding regions for political purposes," Mr Kennedy said.

"You get dominance by the minister, and the department, and the statutory body can't do its job – its people see themselves as silent servers."

Mr Lawlor denied the allegations and stood by TQ's independence.

"I've certainly seen no evidence of (Government interference) and certainly I haven't done it," he said.

"(But) the Government is interested in how Tourism Queensland spend their money and they're asked to account for how they spend their money."

Mr Kennedy described last year's Best Job in the World campaign – which TQ says attracted $420 million in free publicity – as a "silly gimmick" which failed to draw tourists.

"It was saying this guy (contest winner Ben Southall) has got a great job living on Hamilton Island," he said.

"But it didn't have a target. It wasn't telling you to do something.

"The only thing that matters is getting bums on beds, but did they get any tourists?

"Have a look at the results, (which are) down."

He said Queensland tourism authorities had ultimately not "sold" their product vigorously enough.

"You've got to be working on your travel agents and tying up with the airlines," Mr Kennedy said.

"You've got to be driving them mad."

Opposition tourism spokesman Ray Stevens accused the Government of a "lacklustre" response to deteriorating market conditions and competition from interstate and overseas.