WHEN it comes to local tourism, some Bathurst councillors just don’t get it.
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That’s the opinion of Bathurst Regional Vignerons Association vice president Tony Hatch after councillors voted on Wednesday night to reject calls for the creation of a new stakeholders reference group to support local tourism industries.
Councillor Jess Jennings put the notice of motion to Wednesday night’s monthly meeting of Bathurst Regional Council but it failed by the narrowest of margins, defeated by mayor Gary Rush’s casting vote.
Mr Hatch sat in the public gallery throughout a lengthy debate on the issue and left the chamber without the result he sought.
However, he was pleased to see Cr Jennings’ notice of motion at least got councillors talking.
“There were some that just didn’t get it, but I thought it did promote a lot of valuable discussion,” Mr Hatch said yesterday.
Cr Jennings said he introduced the motion in the hope of encouraging greater collaboration with representatives of the tourism industry.
“To achieve greater tourism success, both the local tourism community and council need to work together in a more united, co-ordinated and collaborative fashion,” he said.
“When council’s destination management plan comes out we need to hit the ground running.”
Cr Jennings said while council does some tourism activities like the Bathurst 1000 extremely well, at the same time we have lost both the Bronze Thong and BRE&D Week this year.
Councillors Bourke, Aubin and Coote indicated they wanted to wait and see what the destination management plan contains before thinking about forming a reference group.
“I think we shouldn’t worry about it tonight,” Cr Coote said.
Cr Monica Morse said a reference group would give all tourism operators an opportunity to come together. “I think we need to start making tourism operators feel part of their own industry,” she said.
However, Cr Ian North, believes council is “engaging with people all the time”.
“Tourism has been lacking for years, but we can’t say we are not working on it now,” he said.
“The loss of BRE&D Week and the Bronze Thong is not our problem.”
Cr Greg Westman said he would support the creation of a reference group.
“We hear from stakeholders that we are not doing enough,” he said.
“I would like to get that engagement up and running so we are getting their input regardless of what is in the destination management plan.”
Cr Rush also weighed into the debate, saying a variety of workshops were held during the destination management plan’s creation and everyone had the opportunity to offer their opinions.
“This council is very committed to turning tourism around,” Cr Rush said.
“A number of tourism operators appreciate that we want to engage with them, so don’t think for a second we haven’t done anything to engage.”
Mr Hatch said he attended four of the workshops referred to by Cr Rush and found them valuable. He added that BRVA spent $25,000 to engage Kim Currie, an expert in food and wine tourism, to prepare a report on marketing the region.
Mr Hatch welcomed the commissioning of a destination management plan, but said it must be acted upon and not just filed away.
