Big battle for tourism role
Two organisations are doing battle to represent Albany tourism operators, with the Albany City Council inviting both groups to present business plans at a meeting on Tuesday night.
Councillor Greg Stocks put forward a successful motion that the council support the concept of a Great Southern local tourism organisation and seek the presentation of business plans from interested groups. Albany City Mayor Dennis Wellington said the council had been approached by both Denmark Tourism Incorporated and the recently established Discover Albany Foundation.
"So we're saying to both of them: come up with a business plan that is sustainable, that we can support," he said.
Denmark Tourism Incorporated chairman Simon Lyas said the Denmark board and members had agreed to consider transitioning into a Great Southern local tourism organisation and had been in discussion with Plantagenet, Albany and Denmark shires.
"This has been a long time coming - destination marketing in the region needs to be addressed," he said.
"From among our own members, there has been very positive feedback across the region, including members from Albany and Plantagenet. I think it's very important to include all three shires as there are natural assets and infrastructure in all shires."
Mr Lyas said securing funding from the shires and the City was a critical element to establishing the group and it would present a formal business plan for consideration.
However, Discover Albany Foundation member Graham Harvey recently helped set up the Albany-based group and said a better funding model had been identified.
Mr Harvey said in one to three years, the foundation would have the profits from Discovery Bay's Whale World after former Australia's South West chairman Cameron Syme helped negotiate the gifting of the tourism museum from the Jaycees Community Foundation to the group.
"Albany already has a local tourism organisation that has support of 26 major operators," he said.
"We're getting on with filling a gap that has been left for 10 years."
Mr Harvey said the foundation would not present a business case for consideration by the City as tourism representative groups needed to be self-sufficient and not to rely on local government funding. "The City has done a good job with the visitor centre, but ultimately it's the responsibility of the tourism industry," he said.
Mr Harvey said the group was in the process of forming an interim board, to be finalised by the beginning of the 2015-16 financial year, and would welcome the opportunity to work collaboratively with Denmark Tourism in the future.
Cape Howe Cottages co-owner Gaynor Clarke said the motion was a "fantastic" move by the council.
"Neither group is big enough, they could be more effective if they joined, for example Margaret River just merged with Geographe Tourism," she said.
However, Ms Clarke proposed the organisations examine a different funding model in which every business paid a levy rather than membership fees.
