After contracts had already been tendered for the repair of Park Road and replacement of the existing boardwalk, council belatedly arranged a ‘Reference Group’ meeting which included representation from most community groups and some residents in the affected area. Russell Green chaired the meeting which contained a presentation of what needed to be done and how it was proposed to do it.  On the positive side it appears a solution to the closing of Park Road for 22 weeks has been found as it may be possible to keep one lane open for the duration of the construction period which may be reduced to 18 weeks with the added bonus of saving up to $400,000 on the original estimate.

However, keeping the boardwalk at its present width seems to pose some difficulties as funding from the State Government for the replacement of the boardwalk is apparently contingent upon it becoming a dual purpose facility shared by walkers and cyclists which means doubling its width.

FON argued the National Park is one of Noosa’s major attractions and the boardwalk is an extension of the park and as such reflects the ‘low key’ essence of Noosa’s style setting the mood for the park experience.  A three metre wide boardwalk hardly supports this feeling.  We argued the $400,000 savings in the construction costs should be used to offset any loss of state Government funding.  We also argued for reinstating the existing guard rail rather than proceeding with a flash stainless steel and wood number could also further reduce costs while at the same time sustaining the Noosa look.  Council representatives have undertaken to consider our concerns and get back to us.  We shall see!

Tourism remains a hot topic for numerous reasons but primarily because visitor numbers are down this year and competition for the Noosa market is  highly competitive.  It’s been reported the new Sunshine Coast Tourism body called Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO) that takes over from the former Tourism Sunshine Coast on June 30 is yet to hire key personnel including marketing managers.  Here is an organisation due to start functioning in a weeks time yet lacks at least 10  key personnel to do what’s necessary to attract visitors to the Sunshine Coast.

Over 40,000 jobs on the coast are dependent on the tourism industry yet the council shrugs its shoulders and says it will be business as usual.   The market is tough enough without the additional factor of the coast not having in place an experienced and smooth functioning tourism marketing body.  With September holidays just around the corner and families already making plans for the Christmas/January holidays the Sunshine Coast per se is really behind the 8 ball.  Hopefully, Tourism Noosa is pro-actively engaged in selling Noosa as the holiday destination for both holidays.

I know from my Budget days when business was down we all mobilised and manned the phones calling travel agents, booking agencies, and corporate travel departments offering attractive incentives to book Budget cars.   We also looked for ways to generate ‘free ink’, that is get stories about us published in newspapers, magazines and interviews on TV and radio.  In fact our managers were expected to generate free publicity about the company every month.  So they quickly discovered ways to describe and share unusual customer experiences with the media.  (One that caused some controversy but certainly gave us a lot of air time was the famous bookie robbery at the Victoria Club in Melbourne on settlement day.  When it was discovered the robbers made their getaway in a Budget car the media were told by our Melbourne manager that “if you are going to rob bookies of a million dollars then the most important thing you need is a dependable set of wheels, so where else would you go but Budget.) It wasn’t quite the market we were targeting but it sure got a lot of media coverage.

I would imagine every day dozens of things happen in Noosa that lend themselves to being good positive news stories but someone needs to get hold of them and then get them into the media. Events like the arrival of the whales on their annual northward trek, the great work done by the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre and how each of the animals under care develops a personality of its own and is named accordingly. Interviews of overseas visitors on how much they loved their Noosa experience are but a few of the stories that could be turned into ‘free ink’.   Who would be the most appropriate people to take on this task?

Bob Ansett