Where to put them?

NOBODY needs to convince us that Geelong is a highly desirable place to live and visit.

Our world-class beaches, award-winning food and wine establishments, as well as the recent success in attracting major events to the region, has now broadcast to the world just how wonderful our part of the world is.

So popular is our region with visitors, Tourism Greater Geelong estimates that tourism numbers are expected to hit five million annual visitors by 2030.

The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, in particular, has become an incredibly effective marketing tool for our region. Apart from being an international picture postcard streamed across the globe, the race has also attracted some of the world’s top cycling fraternity into Geelong, to compete and spectate.

Next year the UCI-accredited men’s race is scheduled for January 28 — the tail end of the southern hemisphere’s largest sailing regatta, the Festival of Sails, which will take place on Geelong’s waterfront from January 26-28. Both events are drawcards to tens of thousands of people — but where will all those people stay?

It’s the second time this week that the lack of facilities in Geelong has made news after the revelation that the muchtouted convention centre was no longer viable at its proposed waterfront location. City leaders have lobbied for a 1000-person capacity convention centre for more than 20 years. Even then the writing was on the wall that Geelong’s accommodation capacity was going to reach crisis point.

Today, State Tourism Minister John Eren, G21 chair Elaine Carbines and local tourism chief Roger Grant have all called for an accommodation boost for the city. We have the drawing power to attract visitors, but our ability to house them is woefully inadequate.

Twenty20 cricket, A-League soccer, the Archibald Prize — we work hard to secure major events to drive tourism, employment and economic growth. But what is the point of attracting world-class events if there’s no room at the inn?