MORE than 100 people on Tuesday night packed out a room at Club Narooma to discuss proposed changes to Eurobodalla tourism, including the possible outsourcing of the Narooma Visitor Information Centre.
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The public meeting, organised by the Narooma Chamber of Commerce, was an opportunity for the Eurobodalla Shire Council to outline its proposed changes to its tourism operations.
Tourism and communications manager Cath Reilly outlined the main points of the proposal and she repeated numerous times that the Narooma visitor centre and associated museum would not be closed.
Instead the proposal suggests the operation of the centre could be outsourced to either a private business or a non-for-profit such as the chamber of commerce with the use of volunteers.
She also outlined the other “streams” of the proposed changes, which included having a centralised call centre, having a mobile pop-up tourism van, working with big venues such as clubs to be mini visitor centres and of course more marketing to the big cities.
Those attending were encouraged to make submissions and chamber president Orit Karny Winters asked for an extension to time to make submissions.
Mayor Lindsay Brown, who was joined by fellow councillors Neil Burnside, Gabrielle Harding, Peter Schwartz, Rob Pollock and Liz Innes, said councillors could decide to extend the comment period beyond the already extended 42 days but that would have to be done by vote at a full council meeting.
Clr Brown in answer to another question said there would be more meetings with tourism operators in the meantime and that once the proposal had been finalised, it would again go out for public comment prior to it being adopted.
Visitor centre fate
The fate of the Narooma visitor centre dominated the discussion at the meeting.
Narooma charter boat operator Warren Stubbs from Lighthouse Charters started out the questions and comments saying local tourism businesses did okay in the busy times, but that the slow time of year was when they needed the most assistance.
Real estate agent Narelle Bate questioned what was happening with the visitor centre and council booking system for charter boats and accommodation that will stop functioning at the end of the financial year.
Cath Reilly confirmed the “Bookeasy” was going to be wrapped up as many of the business had their own websites and were using other services such as TripAdvisor and Expedia and that council should not be a travel agent taking bookings and a 10 per cent commission.
Warren Stubbs then asked would a private operator of the tourism centre take bookings and Reilly answered they wouldn’t have to and would have enough of a revenue stream.
Narooma Charters founder Darryl Stuart asked what would happen to the museum at the centre, and Reilly said of course it would remain and could be part of any private venture and could continue to be looked after by the local historical society.
Matt Davey from Black Bream Point Cabins asked how the council would ensure any private operator of the centre would remain impartial when offering advice or taking bookings, which drew a round of applause.
“It’s really important to have a personal touch, particularly when dealing with the elderly,” he said.
Cath Reilly then spoke about the accreditation process and a code of conduct that would apply to a private operator just as it did to council.
Narooma resident Judy Glover was one of several attending who had conducted their own research calling a number of visitor centres around NSW and Australia.
She singled out Port Macquarie, one of 10 she contacted, as being particularly cumbersome and automated, in the end leaving her number and she had still not been contacted back.
“I believe in digital but I also believe you need somebody properly paid by council so they are impartial,” she said.
Her husband and former mayor of Yass, John Glover, also spoke up and said the Eurobodalla council’s engagement with the public on these proposed changes left a lot to be desired.
Volunteers versus paid staff
Real estate agent Ben Bate then posed questions directly to mayor Lindsay Brown and councillor Neil Burnside about whether other visitor centres that operated with volunteers were an improvement on the current system in Narooma and whether they were more efficient.
Clr Burnside at that point said his own personal view was that the visitor centre could operate more efficiently as a private enterprise, and later went on to speak about how council was just trying to make sure its $1.2 million tourism budget could be spent in the most efficient and effective manner.
Clr Liz Innes also spoke about the need to keep the visitor centres but that everyone should keep an open mind to new ways of doing things and the various combinations of the proposal that would see the most value for the dollars spent by council.
“You have a spectacular building here and clearly the message we are hearing is that you don’t want to see the Narooma visitor centre go,” she said. “You want people to get some face to face service.”
Local historian and author Laurelle Pacey then spoke about how important tourism was the local economy and how the community itself built the visitor centre in around 1979 without any help from the council.
She spoke about how the door counter at the centre had not worked over the years and questioned the council’s data on how many people actually visited or called the centre.
She urged the council to abandon the proposal until a proper economic impact study could be completed and that there should be greater collaboration between the council, tourism business and the general community, which drew a big round of applause.
Cath Reilly said there had been collaboration since way back in 2008 and then spoke about the door counter and how council had bumped up the figures to say that instead of five per cent of tourists attended the visitor centre to seven per cent to take into account any issues with the door counter.
Resident and artist Greg Watts then questioned how much thought had been given to the nine visitor centre employees who potentially would lose their jobs with council.
Narooma Charters operator Norm Ingersole then spoke about the general downturn in tourism due to the Australian dollar and global financial crisis and that council should hold off on any decision until the sector had improved.
He also asked the councillors to rule out a tourism levy, and while they would not, the current proposal before council does not make any mention of a levy.
Councillor Rob Pollock since the meeting said, “It’s all about getting more people here. I’ve always believed it’s the role of Eurobodalla Tourism to attract more people to the shire. Once they are here, it is up to the businesses to serve them well and get them to come back.”