Touts turning off customers
Businesses call for tough action
HUMAN mosquitoes buzzing around the city centre are taking zero heed of a Cairns Regional Council promise to crack down on touting.
The illegal marketing practice is rife in the CBD with hawkers spilling onto busy footpaths to try to drag customers into their shops.
InTime Surf and Street Wear owner Anita Gardiner has had enough, calling on the council to make good on its pledge and increase the presence of plainclothes officers to nab them in the act.
“As a business we are not allowed to put A-frames on the footpath but these backpacker travel agencies are allowed to remain on the footpath … using the path as their office or their recreational area, throwing rubber balls against the wall while waiting to harass a pedestrian,” she said.
“They will step in front of pedestrians or follow them up the mall trying to get them to stop and talk to them.”
The Shields St trader said the retail industry was tough enough without rude and annoying touters scaring off customers.
“The council should stand up to these businesses who are gradually turning our mall into a ghost mall and giving visitors a bad experience,” she said.
“I know of a number of businesses who will be leaving as soon as they can and unless something changes quickly we will be one of them.”
In January this year, Deputy Mayor Terry James said the council would clamp down on touting but it has proved difficult in practice.
A council spokeswoman said 32 fines of $261 – considerably less than the $569 maximum listed on the council’s website – had been issued to offending businesses since the start of the year. It totalled $8352 in penalties.
“Council has stepped up its efforts to address touting in the CBD through random, daily patrols of known trouble spots,” she said.
“Fining the business provides a financial deterrent that has greater impact than fining individual touters who are often in Cairns temporarily.
“As part of our enforcement council has been conducting plain clothes patrols to identify touters actively engaging in this activity.”
Ms Gardiner said the fines were clearly not working.
“I told one of the touters to stay away from the front of our shop and to stop harassing people once they have walked past as it affects my business,” she said. “He said that was his job – to harass.”
I KNOW A NUMBER OF BUSINESSES WHO WILL BE LEAVING AND UNLESS SOMETHING CHANGES ... WE WILL BE ONE OF THEM.