The 296-room Daydream Island resort in the Whitsundays has been listed by the tourism entrepreneur Vaughan Bullivant.

The businessman who sold the Nature’s Own vitamin company for $137 million in 1997 paid about $25 million for the island in 2000 and has spent nearly $50 million on it, according to the Australian Financial Review.

He hopes to capture emerging Chinese interest in the region displayed when Chinese advertising and media group White Horse snapped up Lindeman Island on the Great Barrier Reef for about $12 million in April.

Daydream sits among many Queensland resorts that have suffered from the high Australian dollar and also the cheaper airfares to Asian holiday destinations.

But Bullivant (pictured above) says his four-and-a-half-star resort is now profitable.

“Daydream has always been extremely important to me, and I’ve put many years of my life into making it the beautiful tropical island resort that it is today, as have many staff and my Daydream Island management team,” he told Fairfax Media.

“But I’m 65 now and looking to at some stage put my feet up and enjoy doing other things in life, including more travel and spending time with my family, which has long been my goal.”

International operators – particularly chains with Asian resorts – are expected to chase the opportunity as the island is offered vacant possession through CBRE Hotels Brisbane’s Wayne Bunz, whose expressions of interest campaign closes March 14 next year. No price estimate has been given.

It was Village Roadshow that sold the island in 1999.

The purchasing syndicate reportedly included Keith Williams and Vaughan Bullivant. Williams was bought out some time ago.

Daydream Island is one of seven islands of the Molle Group, a sub-group of the Whitsunday Islands in Queensland, Australia. The island is small, measuring one kilometre in length and 400 metres at its widest point.