“She’ll be right, mate”

Bright has been like a ghost town for most of February and businesses are suffering. But unless some serious advertising money is spent soon it'll even struggle in Autumn.

But what’s the plan and who will fund it?

Bright’s tourism operators have been told they ”need to remain positive” and to ”keep their morale up” if they are going to outlast the side effects from the recent bushfires, according to a front page story  in this week’s Bright Observer.

That’s the message from both the Bright Chamber of Commerce (BCC) and the Alpine council’s tourism arm, the Alpine Region Tourism Board (ARTB). But I have to wonder if they are seriously underestimating the extent of not only the bushfire impact on tourism, but also the impacts of the ongoing world financial crisis. These comments seem to suggest they’re just leaving it up to individual operators to fund their own recovery promotional programs:

 (The BCC vice president) said metropolitan media outlets claiming Bright was blacked out had shaken chamber members.

“We had cancellations during the fire which really spooked the local market,” she said.

“What we’re experiencing is temporary, not pervasive.”

“Local businesses needed to find what makes them special and continue to sell it.”

“Bright is beautiful right now,” she said. “It’s the perfect time to attract visitors.”

Alpine Regional Tourism Board’s John Kroeger said the smoke threat had caused a number of cancellations within the shire.

“The bulk of tourism operators are small businesses and they can’t afford to go too long under threat,” he said.

“We need to get advertising out there. We are still in business.”

“We need to encourage people to come and support the events that are still happening.”

“We’re trying to make sure that Labor Day weekend is as busy as it normally is.”

Mr Kroeger said the recent fires had shown that there are more vulnerable areas around the state than just Bright.

“Bright is not the only place that has the threat of fire,” he said.

Mr Kroeger said it was important that tourism operators kept their morale up.

Comment:

See what I mean? Bright has been quiet since the Australia Day long weekend ending on 26 January, due firstly to the two week record heatwave that kept tourists away in droves as they opted to stay home under their air-conditioners. Then we had the events of 7 February and we’ve hardly seen a tourist since. Bright’s like a ghost town right now and most tourism businesses have had bugger all income for an entire month. It’s likely to stay quiet for a while yet, the Labor Day long weekend aside, although that will only provide some minor relief.

The BCC & ARTB don’t seem to have a grip on the fact that our traditional Autumn market, retirees who are either self-funded or on pensions, are cutting right back on travel this year. They either don’t have the income or are ‘pulling their heads in’ in order to survive the economic conditions. I’m sure we’ll do well at Easter (April 10 – 13) and on ‘Gala Day’ weekend (May 1 & 2), but the rest of Autumn is likely to be well down due mainly to the state of the economy. 

As John Kroeger has correctly pointed out, “We need to get advertising out there,” but what is his plan and who is going to fund it?

The BCC’s suggestion that “Local businesses needed to find what makes them special and continue to sell it” is lame, to say the least. Individual operators – even if they can afford it – can’t prompt a whole market to return to, or discover, the town of Bright. What is needed is an over-arching campaign in the Melbourne mainstream media including on TV & radio and in the newspapers that delivers this simple message:

Visit Beautiful Bright in Autumn

~Australia’s most attractive town~

Or something like that. A two-week campaign running in mid-March and costing about $200,000 should get those phones ringing again. But please don’t expect the local operators to tip in and subsidise it, they’ve been subsidising ARTB for more than a decade for next to no output and certainly no measurable return. No, it’s up to ARTB to – finally – run a serious campaign that is entirely focused on the town of Bright, the economic heart of our local tourism industry.

But I shouldn’t be too hard on Mr Kroeger even though his board has been rather aloof, distant and has not connected with the businesses that fund it, and even though ARTB have produced no tangible plans to date and have still not resolved our key Branding issue.

You see, ARTB can’t even spend a cent without the council’s approval it seems. So I’d suggest this $200,000 must come directly from council’s general revenue.

Come on Alpine council, it’s time you supported the industry that has supported you for so long. You owe it to the tourist operators of Bright and (by extension) the wider shire to dip into your reserves - even go into a bit of deficit, if that’s what it takes - to meet your statutory obligation to support the local economy in these extremely tough times. 

Let’s have your $200,000 to promote BRIGHT - and now please.

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