There has been widespread disappointment at the shire’s Visitor Information Centres (VICs) over the decision to defer an application to IPART (Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal) for a special rate variation (SRV) for tourism.
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The SRV would have seen an increase in tourism funding of between $175,000 and $500,000 but the application needed to be with IPART by February 2019 to be considered for a rate increase in 2019/20.
But councilllors have voted to delay the proposal until financial year 2020/21 after hearing that there was too little time to identify how the rate could be applied, how it could capture everyone involved in tourism and meet the requirements for public consultation without hitting the summer holiday period.
Chair of Eden Tourism Inc Bob Sykes said he was disappointed at the delay of 12 months and that it would leave Eden’s centre in limbo.
“After the amount of work in the Tourism Industry Liaison Group and work done by council, staff would have been in a position to submit something,” Mr Sykes said.
“We’ve been talking to council for a long time now, at least from early 2017,” he said.
We’ve been talking to council for a long time now, at least from early 2017.
- Bob Sykes Chair of Eden Tourism Inc.
“We run pretty lean and were hoping for the SRV to run things and keep everything going,” he added.
“We are a level 1 accredited Visitor Information Centre and that means we have to be open for a certain amount of time. We have to keep our accreditation up otherwise we may lose access to funding,” Mr Sykes explained.
Chair of Merimbula Tourism Kevin Philistin said the four VICs were running on a shoe string and while the rent increases for the centres had been put on hold council was clearly looking to impose them at some stage.
“The economic model is very fragile. We rely very much on our members,” Mr Philistin said.
“Council has been well aware of us expressing concern about the inequity of the current SRV. We have been expressing that for some 18 months now,” Mr Philistin said.
The mood was the same at Bermagui where secretary of the Bermagui Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Janette Neilson questioned why the matter had been left so late.
“It was 2012 when we first came up with the suggestion to broaden the levy,” Ms Neilson said.
VICs are calling for council to start consultation with them as soon as possible and also want to ensure they have a say in how any future increases in tourism funding are spent.
The motion to delay the SRV application until financial year 2020/21 was part of a two pronged approach which also included another SRV application based on raising $1.9 million to fund the shire’s swimming pools, alongside the $500,000 for an additional tourism marketing program.