EVERY DAY A TOURIST STAYS HERE RATHER THAN HEADING SOMEWHERE ELSE HELPS OUR REGION
ELCOME to Townsville!
Seeing our city through the eyes of a tourist is tricky, but having guests stay in your home means hearing about what works, and what we could do better.
While Townsville Enterprise mentioned this week they had no plans to market our region to Europe, recent guests at my BnB have been exclusively French.
Enticed by images of sunny beaches, unique wildlife and an escape from freezing temperatures, they’ve somehow found their way here unassisted, and enjoyed most of it.
Billabong Sanctuary scores a big tick, but a big surprise for many is the stinger situation, so this week’s guests headed to the Rockpool, returning home with the news that it was closed.
As Effie would say, ‘ How embarrassment’. Really, is that the best we can do? Surely it’s possible to clean the thing before or after hours.
Guests reckon the cost of taking their cars over to Maggie is too high, so I recommend the passenger ferry and bus.
Good for the ferry, bad for both the barge and local businesses, because not only do the tourists miss out on exploring more of the island, businesses off the bus route miss out too – is it time for a pricing rethink?
Mostly, the feedback is “it’s so beautiful here”, but although I warn guests to lock cars, I’m not telling them to hide their keys.
Crims breaking into bedrooms is not the situation normal we want to promote, although when yet another early morning disturbance involving screamed obscenities and a cane knife woke the guests ( that’s five in as many weeks) I was almost relieved when they left for Cairns.
It felt traitorous telling them they could laze in the seafront lagoon from 6am to 9pm compared to our limited Rockpool hours ( when it’s open); but with Airlie and Cairns touristified to the max, we have to do better, and fast.
Visitors who arrive here by road aren’t recorded as airport arrivals but they are here nonetheless, specifically to enjoy the sun and to swim, snorkel and sunbathe.
They love markets, our high set homes, wide streets and shaded verandas that are unique and fitting to our region, so with the bizarrely titled The Hive rubber- stamped, could developers at least take inspiration from the architects of the Rambutan development to ensure their plans aren’t a concrete- styled extension of the Flinders St “upgrade” that tore the soul out of our tropical centre?
Every day a tourist stays here rather than heading somewhere else helps our region; laidback tropical island destinations allow enterprising locals to set up stalls and kiosks to service tourist needs while our painful permit processes does the opposite.
Make stuff easy, not difficult. Enjoyable, not excruciating. Encourage small enterprise, reduce red tape. Perhaps focus less on grand visions and more on charming delights, because despite the drought, the crime, the crocs, stingers and cyclones ( shhhh), tourists keep arriving, enticed by our weather and beaches, not our mall or stadium.
The old Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs song says it best – Stay ( Just a Little Bit Longer) – give tourists more reason to, and it’s a sure thing they will.