Tourism chief backs merger, bigger airport
Tourism WA chief Stephanie Buckland has delivered a personal message to tourism operators in the region during a whirlwind visit recently.
Speaking to the Times during her stopover, Ms Buckland said Tourism WA was not in the driver’s seat, but fully supported plans for the region’s two tourism associations to merge into the one body, for tourism itself to be more widely recognised as an economic driver for the region.
She also said expansion of the Busselton Airport was perhaps the most important project for tourism in WA.
Ms Buckland delivered the latest market research on the “Margaret River region” brand that TWA commissioned in part to convince the hold-outs north of the border about the importance of a shared brand to market the region, and a unified body to deliver it.
“(The researchers) were saying the parochialism needs to stop and we all need to work together, ” she told the Times.
Pooling resources was the key way to help the region’s growth, with Margaret River identified as one of the four best-known destinations in WA.
“Margaret River is one of the ones that is most inspirational, ” Ms Buckland said.
“People say, ‘Yeah, I’d like to go there one of these days’.
“We need to make sure we are promoting the diversity of experiences that are on offer.”
She believed most agencies including local governments supported the need to work together.
Marketing the region and the plethora of visitor options needed to be done under the one brand — and the airport needed to be extended to allow for bigger planes.
Although Virgin Australia was reviewing its flight schedule to Busselton, tourism visits via airplane to the region couldn’t really take off until the existing runway was extended.
“That is the most important thing and that is the game changer for the region, ” she said.
However, Ms Buckland couldn’t give any insight into the funding process behind making the airport dream a reality.
Despite a strong business case for the expansion, a public forum recently heard Federal funding was unlikely in the next five years, and the State funding forecast was not much more optimistic.
Ms Buckland said the expansion was more important than the airport’s name, though TWA believed Margaret River should be front and centre of any branding — including the interstate and overseas branding proposed by the new Margaret River-Busselton Tourism Association.
Ms Buckland brushed off concerns about the clunky MRBTA moniker by saying it was also not the main concern as few people outside the region would ever use it.
“I know there’s a big difference between the name of the organisation and the name of the region, ” she told the Times.
The TWA strategy involves doubling WA’s tourism market by 2020.
Ms Buckland said the amalgamation plans would be “a very positive opportunity” with that $6 billion growth target in mind.
The Times understands future marketing materials will use the Margaret River name exclusively, except for an intrastate audience.
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