A Queensland mayoral candidate says she recruited a lost international tourist to campaign for her in exchange for a lift back to his cruise ship.

Townsville candidate Joanne Keune said she was campaigning at a busy city intersection on Tuesday when a man approached her asking for directions to his cruise ship with the help of a translation app.

In a social media post, Ms Keune said she told the man, "Here you wobble board for me, for an hour — and I'll drop you back to your cruise boat".

"It warmed my heart every second I looked over and saw him waving. He loved it," she said in a now-deleted Facebook post.

The post included videos and photos of the tourist and attracted hundreds of comments, including some who said the move was exploitative.

Votes will be counted from Saturday for T

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