Tom Sharp's
Blog
27-05-2020
SHARP COMMENT 2 - ONE FARM, IN A BOX, FITS ALL
Another outburst and again another apology from the Mayor. Council’s leadership style came to the fore at SRRC’s first ordinary meeting held on Monday 11 May via teleconference, and it was clear to all that ‘stonewalling’ of councillors will be the new norm when it comes to transparency and the providing of information.
Councillors Swanborough, McConnell and McInnes made it clear they were underwhelmed by the information provided to them in both timing and detail with relation to grant funding for bushfire recovery and the determinations around effectively applying funds to support the region’s tourism industry in particular.
In light of COVID-19, Cr Swanborough noted that circumstances had changed, and a review of the proposed initiatives was warranted. Resistance came from both the Mayor and Council officers, General Manager Debra Howe in particular, supporting the grants activities on the basis of specific grant guidelines – not on the basis of an initiative’s merits or effectiveness.
The ‘argy bargy’ peaked when Cr Swanborough alluded to initiatives being taken by a former council and that the newly-elected council should be afforded the time to review the proposals put before them and determine if the constituency had been consulted and was supportive of the proposals under review.
One initiative in particular was the proposed consolidation of Local Tourism Offices (LTO) from two to one. Currently, one LTO is being operated by the Tamborine Mountain Chamber of Commerce and the second, Destination Scenic Rim, run out
of Boonah.
Ms Howe advised councillors that exhaustive consultation and workshops with tourism industry operatives (including
Cr Swanborough’s division) had been carried out and that those very operatives were in support of every initiative.
While I am no tourist industry expert, the most basic of business acumen tells one this does not work, and one would have to query our tourist operatives for supporting this measure.
Tamborine Mountain, The Green Behind the Gold (a marketing initiative developed by Gold Coast Tourism more than 20 years ago) is a brand in its own right and is still heavily promoted today – see www.destinationgoldcoast.com . As a standalone brand and destination, it is a big enough entity in its own right to share the SRRC budget allocation and it generates more than sufficient rate revenue to offset individual status.
The notion that a dozen other entities should piggyback off a destination which has existed as a single destination for 100 years is not acceptable to the Mountain or its industry operators. Apart from the fact that the ‘package’ of Tamborine Mountain is hardly comparable with the balance of the region, it is dislocated by virtue of access and is unlikely to derive much benefit, if any, from visitors choosing the many varied offerings of the Scenic Rim in the form of Spicers Gap, Glennies Chair, Lions Road, O’Reillys, Binna Burra and Kooralbyn to name a few.
The Council enclave of marketers, journalists and managers needs to demonstrate the hows and whys a consolidation can be applied with efficiency and measurable results as it is in so many other areas of destination in their own right. For example, the wineries of the Granite Belt do not carry the excess baggage of every other tourist operator that is not a wine producer along the wine trail, with similar situations in Kingaroy/Murgon, Hunter Valley, Gulgong, Bourke etc.
The variety of opportunity on Tamborine Mountain is ideally suited to the short visit market and offers ample in its own right to sustain that segment as well as day visitation market. If any monies are available, they should be applied specifically to the development and approval of further attractions on the Mountain which do not require the balance of attractions throughout the Scenic Rim to come along for the ride.
The development of a planetarium and observatory comes immediately to mind.
I would strongly suggest, that if any combined operation would come into existence, Tamborine Mountain would be paying a vastly disproportionate contribution to the other operators.
The clutter and contrast of rural non-rainforest areas such as the Summerland Camel Farm, and other like entities has its own place in the South East Queensland market and should not be confusing the issue. To compare the Scenic Rim with a region running from Cairns to Broome is nothing but an absolute nonsense. Such a region, in a shared promotion, is more suited to the ‘grey nomad’ with two or three months at their disposal or to the top end of the market spending excessive amounts of money on such things as small aircraft flights, river cruising such
as Victoria River, the Ord and the
Gulf rivers.
When governments started supporting tourism by way of funding, information centres and the like, levies were handed over to the area concerned in its entirety. A classic example is Canungra. No tourism existed in that town until the creation of the information centre. Initiated and run entirely by locals, a tourism industry was born, and Canungra’s success is all entirely from that initiative not from any LTO or other NGO or level of government, whether it be local, state or federal. The town had been nearly crippled given the downsizing of the then Land Warfare Centre and the local transport company running buses to Pacific Fair for shopping.
The opportunity is here for the two LTOs to work collaboratively on regional promotions and events such as a ‘buy local’ program or the annual Eat Local Week event when the occasion arises and to invest the majority of their time in an individual tourist-offering plan of their own design that is logical and practical in terms of the region’s large area and extreme diversity. To destroy the individual identity of the jewels in the Scenic Rim crown is an absurdity.
The first question to ask is: Did our tourist operators really back this plan?
Tom Sharp
Councillors Swanborough, McConnell and McInnes made it clear they were underwhelmed by the information provided to them in both timing and detail with relation to grant funding for bushfire recovery and the determinations around effectively applying funds to support the region’s tourism industry in particular.
In light of COVID-19, Cr Swanborough noted that circumstances had changed, and a review of the proposed initiatives was warranted. Resistance came from both the Mayor and Council officers, General Manager Debra Howe in particular, supporting the grants activities on the basis of specific grant guidelines – not on the basis of an initiative’s merits or effectiveness.
The ‘argy bargy’ peaked when Cr Swanborough alluded to initiatives being taken by a former council and that the newly-elected council should be afforded the time to review the proposals put before them and determine if the constituency had been consulted and was supportive of the proposals under review.
One initiative in particular was the proposed consolidation of Local Tourism Offices (LTO) from two to one. Currently, one LTO is being operated by the Tamborine Mountain Chamber of Commerce and the second, Destination Scenic Rim, run out
of Boonah.
Ms Howe advised councillors that exhaustive consultation and workshops with tourism industry operatives (including
Cr Swanborough’s division) had been carried out and that those very operatives were in support of every initiative.
While I am no tourist industry expert, the most basic of business acumen tells one this does not work, and one would have to query our tourist operatives for supporting this measure.
Tamborine Mountain, The Green Behind the Gold (a marketing initiative developed by Gold Coast Tourism more than 20 years ago) is a brand in its own right and is still heavily promoted today – see www.destinationgoldcoast.com . As a standalone brand and destination, it is a big enough entity in its own right to share the SRRC budget allocation and it generates more than sufficient rate revenue to offset individual status.
The notion that a dozen other entities should piggyback off a destination which has existed as a single destination for 100 years is not acceptable to the Mountain or its industry operators. Apart from the fact that the ‘package’ of Tamborine Mountain is hardly comparable with the balance of the region, it is dislocated by virtue of access and is unlikely to derive much benefit, if any, from visitors choosing the many varied offerings of the Scenic Rim in the form of Spicers Gap, Glennies Chair, Lions Road, O’Reillys, Binna Burra and Kooralbyn to name a few.
The Council enclave of marketers, journalists and managers needs to demonstrate the hows and whys a consolidation can be applied with efficiency and measurable results as it is in so many other areas of destination in their own right. For example, the wineries of the Granite Belt do not carry the excess baggage of every other tourist operator that is not a wine producer along the wine trail, with similar situations in Kingaroy/Murgon, Hunter Valley, Gulgong, Bourke etc.
The variety of opportunity on Tamborine Mountain is ideally suited to the short visit market and offers ample in its own right to sustain that segment as well as day visitation market. If any monies are available, they should be applied specifically to the development and approval of further attractions on the Mountain which do not require the balance of attractions throughout the Scenic Rim to come along for the ride.
The development of a planetarium and observatory comes immediately to mind.
I would strongly suggest, that if any combined operation would come into existence, Tamborine Mountain would be paying a vastly disproportionate contribution to the other operators.
The clutter and contrast of rural non-rainforest areas such as the Summerland Camel Farm, and other like entities has its own place in the South East Queensland market and should not be confusing the issue. To compare the Scenic Rim with a region running from Cairns to Broome is nothing but an absolute nonsense. Such a region, in a shared promotion, is more suited to the ‘grey nomad’ with two or three months at their disposal or to the top end of the market spending excessive amounts of money on such things as small aircraft flights, river cruising such
as Victoria River, the Ord and the
Gulf rivers.
When governments started supporting tourism by way of funding, information centres and the like, levies were handed over to the area concerned in its entirety. A classic example is Canungra. No tourism existed in that town until the creation of the information centre. Initiated and run entirely by locals, a tourism industry was born, and Canungra’s success is all entirely from that initiative not from any LTO or other NGO or level of government, whether it be local, state or federal. The town had been nearly crippled given the downsizing of the then Land Warfare Centre and the local transport company running buses to Pacific Fair for shopping.
The opportunity is here for the two LTOs to work collaboratively on regional promotions and events such as a ‘buy local’ program or the annual Eat Local Week event when the occasion arises and to invest the majority of their time in an individual tourist-offering plan of their own design that is logical and practical in terms of the region’s large area and extreme diversity. To destroy the individual identity of the jewels in the Scenic Rim crown is an absurdity.
The first question to ask is: Did our tourist operators really back this plan?
Tom Sharp