THE launch of a new visitor guide and website may be a boon for visitors but some operators say there is no clear direction for tourism.

Debbie Bradburn, owner of 31 the Rocks in Stanthorpe, said the shake-up to tourism promotion in the past two years had taken its toll on Southern Downs operators.

"I can't say I'm 100% happy and it's hard to know whether we should be excited about what's happening now, because we don't get a lot of communication," Mrs Bradburn said.

"We're relatively new to the area and the industry having only been here 17 months, but in that time we've had Destination Southern Downs set up, and then withdrawn and now Southern Downs Region Council is looking after tourism.

"It means that promotion hasn't really happened much at all for the past two years, and I think in hindsight it may have been too early for the council to disband DSD without any real plan.

"While in winter we can sort of rest on our laurels, because that's what Stanthorpe is known for, visitor numbers in our summer season have taken a hit."

Killarney and District Historical Society former president Tony Pearson said he agreed disruptions to management in the past two years had hurt tourism for the region.

"The morale has been very low and we haven't had any decent representation," Mr Pearson said.

"I think the council made a lot of changes before they were ready and I think they should have had a plan in place before they changed anything from their predecessors.

"A lot has happened with the State Government saying they're boosting tourism but I think we could do a lot better with proper representation."

Mrs Bradburn said she would invite a local tourism forum between the council and other operators.

"We know council goes to Southern Queensland Country Tourism meeting but there's been no sort of local forum or communication," she said.

"They've released the new guide and website, which is a plus, but as far as we can tell there's not much of a plan.

"We realise council is probably getting an earbashing and we've had a cyclone and heatwave that could have pushed back numbers, so we hope things get better."

In 2015/16, two thirds of the almost $373million in local government spending on tourism was by councils in regional and remote areas, according to a study presented by the Australian Regional Tourism Network.

As tourism portfolio councillor, Cr Kelly said the trend highlighted the role of councils promoting tourism.

He said one year since the council took back the responsibility of tourism promotion, after disbanding the one-year-old Destination Southern Downs body, a regional marketing plan was almost in place.

"Our promotion is focusing on marketing the region as a whole and having the visitor guide is the first step toward what we're doing," Cr Kelly said.

"The tourism strategy will be presented to the advisory committee this week in time for the advisory committee meeting on May 30 to review that strategy and take it to council."

Cr Kelly said the Economic Development and Tourism Unit communicated with operators on a fortnightly basis.

"We were very clear we wanted to get operators involved and I feel we have an advisory committee that is representative of tourism operators, the arts and local heritage," he said.

"We have a significant role to play and we've been very supportive of tourism."