Infrastructure builds tourism

Believe it or not, the reinvigoration of Bright's CBD, and especially the clock tower area, would do more for tourism in the Alpine Shire than spending $millions on advertising would.

So why aren’t we improving Bright’s CBD?

This news story from ABC Online  highlights the very issue that I have been raising for many years. 

At long last someone else is making the right calls.

I have been saying for years that the best way for established tourist destinations in regional areas – like Bright - to attract more tourists is to enhance the appeal of the town itself, to make it more attractive, functional and tourist friendly.

We need to implement the improvements as per the long forgotten and much maligned Bright Future Project if we are to just maintain our tourist-based economy, let alone make it grow.

My further comments appear after the ABC news article:

The Victorian Tourism Industry Council says the high Australian dollar is harming regional Victoria’s tourism industry.

Council spokeswoman Megan Cox says the good exchange rate is making overseas travel more attractive to Australians, while deterring international tourists from visiting Australia.

She says the Government should spend more on enhancing Victoria’s tourism infrastructure to lure visitors.

Ms Cox says the council’s latest survey of interstate visits to (this State) found that trips to regional Victoria have declined.

“We actually found that a lot of people were staying in Melbourne and not dispersing into the regional areas,” she said.

“This could be because they are getting better value for their money going overseas because of the conversion rate.

“Whatever it is though, we need to make sure that we make regional Victoria as attractive as we can for both domestic and international tourists.”

Comment:

It’s just like what we have done @ Grevillea Gardens. When we purchased GG back in 2002 it was much like what the Bright CBD is today – i.e. still pulling regular tourists but static, out-of-date, tired and not exactly encouraging longer stays, repeats & referrals. Since ‘biting the bullet’ though, some 3 years ago, and investing the same amount of money again to totally renew and revitalise the property and its facilities we have certainly turned its fortunes around and attracted a whole new ‘breed’ of customers who are staying longer , coming back more often and sending their families and friends here too.

Apart from our website and its links to a few other sites, we hardly spend any money on advertising & promotion. We actually don’t need to. This is where the Alpine council, ARTB and our Chamber of Commerce have just got it all wrong. There is far too much emphasis on marketing & promotion and hardly any on infrastructure improvements to the CBD. In fact I don’t believe it has ever dawned on any of them that we need to be spending far more money on improving the CBD of Bright than we are spending on advertising. 

If the Alpine council were to abandon its slow-moving, bureaucratic, ill-informed, misguided and generally clueless so-called tourism marketing drive and, instead, put that money into the Bright Future Project for the next few years, it would reap far more benefits (and permanent, ongoing ones) for not only Bright, but also for the entire Alpine Shire region.

I’m not suggesting they do that (although I do believe ARTB and the council’s tourism department are about as useful as, well, you know what) but the point is this:

We need to get our priorities right and understand that the best way to enhance tourism around here is to improve the very town in which most of the tourists in this region like to stay – the town of Bright.

And it wouldn’t be hard to put a convincing argument to Mr Holding & Mr. Brumby that it would be in the State’s economic interests for them to spend something like $10 million on this town.

But do any of our current 7 councillors have the brains and/or the balls to go down this path and do what needs to be done? I doubt it.