Tourism Whitsundays - 'Comment by the Chair' - Chris Jacobs
Whitsunday Times - Thursday 13 May 2010
IT SEEMS that very few people in the Whitsundays are keen on "rnore of the same", judging by the feedback that TW and I personally have received to my last column. (Whitsunday Times, 29 April 2010).
Many have added to the stories of a region in decline "Been here 11 years and it's the worst I've seen lt" - and similar.
A few have chosen to take cheap shots and tell the world it's all Tourism Whitsunday's fault.
Of course they aren't members so they don't get Sea News, they don't attend any TW functions or updates and they have never* been to see Tourism Whitsundays to air their criticisms or grievances*.
But of course they are right ( albeit ill-informed).
No, that's not a typo - Tourism Whitsundays is responsible. But we are an association. We represent our members and are only as strong as they are.
So we are very happy to share the responsibility for the current state of things in the Whitsundays with all our members and even more so with all our non-members.
And we are very happy to share the burden of responsibility for how we get out of this mess with all members and nonmembers alike.
Starting next week we will by means of this newspaper, email, word of mouth and meetings, start the sharing.
We will tell everyone what the achievements of TW have been in the last 12 months and as good as those achievements are we will explain how woefully inadequate that has all been.
We will present the key points of the newly developed marketing plans - plans written to suit the need rather than the inadequate budget and resources that TW has been given to work with.
The Tourism Whitsundays Board and staff team are ready to step up.
We are gutted to see the state of the industry and the local economy.
We know what we have to do but you have to give us the resources to do it. It starts with your involvement, your support, your buy-in.
Sitting on the outside pointing the finger won't cut it.
The dictionary defines Association as "a group of people joined together for a purpose".
We are looking forward to becoming an "Association" in the true sense of the word.
Editors note: Definition of Association: The act of associating or the state of being associated, as in; "We don't want to be associated with them".
- The local group protesting the Council's purchase of land way out of town from a developer for a future park are not on council or employed by the developer - they have made statements about observations they have seen and heard without being influenced by parties who may have a conflict of interest. Are they ill-informed and making 'cheap shots'? I don't think so.
- For at least 12 months, I have been reporting the trend downwards in people serching on the internet travel information in the Whitsundays, predicting this crisis situation. Google provided the data. Are Google ill-informed? No.
* History: The writer of the articles on Tourism Whitsundays was a member in 2004-5. At the time, I emailed Tourism Whitsundays for about 9 months and received no response. My grievance? The non-inclusion of my business in the Tourism Whitsundays Directory.
The only contact Tourism Whitsundays made with me was for renewal of the $500+ (now over $600) annual membership. In 2005, I attended a meeting at Tourism Whitsundays in Cannonvale to discuss the matter, but no apologies or assurances that it wouldn't happen again were given. I did not renew my or the company's membership.
Since then, membership in Tourism Whitsundays has shrunk from around 400 members, to around 200.
Sources:
Article from Whitsunday Times, Thursday 13 May 2010.
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