QUEEN B PROFILE
As the Managing Director of the Sunshine Castle since 2006, Birte has 13 years of tourism and events expertise as a tourism operator and venue manager and in depth knowledge of the tourism industry in Australia and internationally.
Birte Benecke-Uhrig alias Queen B is a Tourism Marketing and Event Specialist with over 25 years of international experience in the tourism and event industries.
Her background includes 6 years as PR and Marketing Coordinator for Tourism New Zealand based in Germany and 2 years working in events and publications for the European Central Bank amongst a plethora of other tourism based roles.
In addition to her extensive Business Administration, Management and Marketing experience, Birte holds a BA in Literature and Languages and a Diploma in Tourism Management. Birte and her husband Stephan Uhrig also run Absolut Toys – a quality Toy and Collectibles business that is also based at the Sunshine Castle since July 2018 but has been trading on the Sunshine Coast and online since 2010. (www.absolut-toys.com)
Birte is passionate about her community and business environment. She regularly contributes her time to several charities, various advisory panels, generously supporting a plethora of organisations and community groups.
She is a founding member and board member of My Wedding Wish – a locally founded charity that gifts weddings to the terminally ill. Birte is the Charity Development Executive and has consistently contributed her time and skills alongside CEO Lynette Maguire to grow My Wedding Wish from a small Sunshine Coast based project to a National Australian Charity. (www.myweddingwish.org)
In late 2018 Birte established the Bli Bli Free Little Pantry which sits on the fence-line of the Sunshine Castle and addresses food scarcity and poverty issues in the local community by providing 24 hour pantry access to non perishable products for people to donate to or take from. (www.facebook.com/bliblipantry)
Watch a few of the recent interviews with Birte about tourism on the Sunshine Coast, on the Queen B story and on Queen B’s most recent bucket list event.
Queen B’s reasons to choose the Sunshine Coast
Becoming Queen B – the story that led to Birte running the Castle – as told in a nomination interview for the Visit Sunshine Coast Board.
The Sunshine Castle has been chosen as a feature event in the Destination Series of the inaugral Curated Plate Culinary Festival in August 2019. Birte appears in the promo video for ‘A Royal Feast of Opera’. She has announced that this is a bucket list event for her in her career as Queen B.
