Failed Airlie Beach eBay campaign

A very few Airlie Beach businesses associated with a self proclaimed internet marketing consultant John 'Jack' Nayler (ex E-Central, Manly, Brisbane) sold their trip and shopping vouchers over the internet recently via his vehicle 'Channel Whitsundays' (no relation to us). During the auction, travel interest in Airlie Beach slid to a new low level.

Several prominent citizens in the area expressed their concerns to this editor that the marketing campaign was "belittling for our region", and "shows desperation".

Comments from the general public on the Courier Mail's website include:

Evil Posted at 4:12 PM February 04, 2010

Pfffffffft.....its an AUCTION. I thought it's really a bargain. Its just a gimmick to attact people whereby as certain as Brisbane's trains breaking down everyday, the end price of the package on auction would deem the seller making a killing.

frederick steyn Posted at 9:48 PM February 04, 2010

So the Best Job in the World Campaign was so successful that the Whitsundays were the campaign was based is now selling off everything for $1.

They may have been right . . . . just 2 months after 'The Best Job in the World' finished on Hamilton Island (20kms away), interest in travelling to Airlie Beach is continuing to slump. Today it hit its lowest level this century, again.

Mr Nayler (who is also a Director of Tourism Whitsundays) claimed that just 2 days after the auction started that: "We've already had a spike in website traffic."

We checked that spike - they were first time customers registering on eBay for the first time, and coincidentally only appeared to be bidding on items offered by Channel Whitsundays. eBay said they were investigating the bidding irregularities, known as 'Shrill Bidding'.

The major seller through Mr Nayler's vehicle was Adelyn Retail, which is owned by Lyn Gregson, who was the Chair of Tourism Whitsundays until she resigned mid-term last year. She offered $500 shopping vouchers to her 4 rag trade shops - all offers failed to get even half their value. Those shops were:
Beachworx - Airlie Beach
Jewl - Airlie Beach
Moochas Boutique - Cannonvale
Swim Swim Swim - Airlie Beach

Tourism Whitsundays represents less than 10% of all businesses registered in the Whitsundays. It is not the official tourism organisation - that is Tourism Queensland. Tourism Whitsundays is a private club (like a Lawn Bowls club) whose membership is made up of people who are associated with tourism in the Whitsundays.

Chris Jacobs, the 5 month old Chairman of Tourism Whitsundays promised that their would be a 'clean out' within his organisation. It looks like the cleaner at Tourism Whitsundays was retrenched when the organization lost over $300,000 to internal fraud last year.

We here in the Whitsundays, need a Tourism organization that looks after the majority of businesses and the tourism industry with a 'big picture' outlook, not just serving a few people and their pockets.

From what we have seen over the past 2 months, several directors and members of Tourism Whitsundays have 'gone rogue'.

• Is the Chairman of Tourism Whitsundays losing his grip on power?
  
• Why did the General Manager of our local paper, the Whitsunday Times, resign as a director of TW mid term last year, and why was it kept quiet?**
• Is Tourism Whitsundays disintegrating?
• Could the past behaviour of Tourism Whitsundays (in a marginal electorate) lead to the downfall of the QLD State Government at the next election?
  

** Footnote: General Manager of the Whitsunday Times, Mr Jim Sherrington, announced his resignation from the paper and APN (the parent company) 2 days after this story was released. His (ex)paper has their side of the resignation here.

Sources
The Courier Mail
Google
Whitsundays Online - Tourism Trends
Whitsunday Times