Bass Coast Post
  • Home
    • Recent articles
  • News
    • Point of view
    • View from the chamber
  • Writers
    • Anne Davie
    • Anne Heath Mennell
    • Bob Middleton
    • Carolyn Landon
    • Catherine Watson
    • Christine Grayden
    • Dick Wettenhall
    • Ed Thexton
    • Etsuko Yasunaga
    • Frank Coldebella
    • Gayle Marien
    • Geoff Ellis
    • Gill Heal
    • Harry Freeman
    • Ian Burns
    • Joan Woods
    • John Coldebella
    • Jordan Crugnale
    • Julie Statkus
    • Kit Sleeman
    • Laura Brearley >
      • Coastal Connections
    • Lauren Burns
    • Liane Arno
    • Linda Cuttriss
    • Linda Gordon
    • Lisa Schonberg
    • Liz Low
    • Marian Quigley
    • Mark Robertson
    • Mary Whelan
    • Meryl Brown Tobin
    • Michael Whelan
    • Mikhaela Barlow
    • Miriam Strickland
    • Natasha Williams-Novak
    • Neil Daly
    • Patsy Hunt
    • Pauline Wilkinson
    • Phil Wright
    • Sally McNiece
    • Terri Allen
    • Tim Shannon
    • Zoe Geyer
  • Features
    • Features 2022
  • Arts
  • Local history
  • Environment
  • Bass Coast Prize
  • Community
    • Diary
    • Courses
    • Groups
  • Contact us

What’s the point of tourists?

9/3/2018

10 Comments

 
Picture
Tim Shannon argues that there is growing global evidence that mass tourism harms communities and the environment.

By Tim Shannon

THE rationale for a Cowes Stony Point car ferry is to connect the Great Ocean Road to Phillip Island via the proposed ferry service, which will provide a supposed increase in tourism benefit to Phillip Island.
 
However, no evidence is offered in the business case to demonstrate that a sustainable Phillip Island needs more tourism. The Island is already one of Australia’s most visited tourist destinations because of its natural beauty and its unique location and accessibility.
 
There is growing evidence globally that tourism is a parasitic industry that has the capacity to seriously harm communities that are consumed by it, and that tourism is subject to environmental and economic disruptions meaning that overdependence on its economic benefits is risky.
 
Phillip Island is, and always has been, a highly attractive destination. A car ferry is not needed to “improve” this; rather, it will change for the worse the unique access and sense of place which is fundamental to the Island’s identity and appeal.
 
Alternative “bench marking” business case options are required to investigate how strategic investment can best contribute to the well-being of a sustainable community on Phillip Island, counterbalancing the dependency and impact of its ongoing tourism industry.
 
It may well be that significantly less expenditure than that anticipated for the car ferry will generate greater and more sustainable inter-generational benefits. As it stands, the community is being offered the “benefits” of the car ferry without any means of evaluating them against other possibilities. For example, what sort of jobs will be created, measured against those jobs which will have enduring benefit to the community, and to what extent will they be the victim of the seasonality of the Island’s tourism industry?
 
In 1975 the former Western Port Regional Planning Authority commissioned the Centre for Environmental Studies (University of Melbourne) to prepare a report named “Phillip Island: Capability, Conflict and Compromise”. It identified a number of strategies that were recommended as being critical to the future viability of the Phillip Island community. There were 10 major objectives:
  1. Maintain a healthy local community, with a diverse range of employment.
  2. Maintain much of the land in agricultural land use.
  3. Make better provision for day trippers.
  4. Ration access to the Island during periods of peak day tripper demand, and to sites which are vulnerable to over-use.
  5. Spread tourist use more evenly around the year.
  6. Accept that a major recreational value of the land is in environmental education.
  7. Restrict the growth of holiday homes to presently subdivided land.
  8. Landscape planning should be a part of land use planning, both on a broad scale and in detailed site planning.
  9. Provide for alternative forms of traffic circulation to meet the needs and demands of motor vehicles, cycles, horses and pedestrians
  10. Safeguard the unique importance of the coastal resources by making detailed management plans to protect them.
 
Notably, there is no mention of the need to increase the means of access to the Island.
 
Forty three years later, these objectives are just as vital. Today we could add the provision of a future for our children, possibly through investment in secondary and tertiary education which celebrates the region, and through the protection of a livelihood gained from sustainable eco-tourism.
 
The business case for the Cowes Stony Point car ferry should be broadened in scope to consider a range of economic and social proposals aimed at shaping a healthy future for Phillip Island.
 
The car ferry issue is a catalyst for the Bass Coast Council and its broad community to consider how Phillip Island can play a part in the ongoing sustainability of the municipality. It most certainly focuses the mind on the relationship between tourism and community, and makes us all question what needs to be done to ensure a sustainable future for the generations ahead.
 
The two most precious attributes of Phillip Island are its farm land and its coastal beauty. If every effort is made to care for these, the Island will have a sustainable attraction in perpetuity.
 
Rather than spend time, money and community goodwill on a car ferry proposal, the attention would be better spent on developing ways to make the farmland economically viable, and ways to ensure that the Island’s natural beauty and resources are protected such that it will continue to be a unique haven in an urbanised world.
 
This is an edited version of Tim and Jill Shannon’s submission on the Cowes Stony Point car ferry business case.  
10 Comments
fiona Rawson
9/3/2018 04:32:52 pm

If only the powers that be had such common sense!

Reply
Stefan
9/3/2018 05:57:42 pm

If one was serious about "Sustainability" the Island would create its own power and water supply and fund its own Hospitals and schools etc! It's very easy to cherry pick the things we want and don't want!
For example how many people purchase products made in China but don't want to allow the ships to arrive or dig up the Minerals to pay for them?
Or we are happy to have the money from Tourists but actually don't want them on the Island!

Reply
John Pandazopoulos
9/3/2018 06:47:19 pm

I encourage everyone to ACTUALLY read the San Remo and Phillip Island Visitor Economy Strategy which in fact has all these details in it. It recognizes that a ‘do nothing’ approach will mean a doubling in tourism. As part of the Strategy that had the most extensive Community consultation process that this is not what we want. It was agreed that an interventionist approach would deliver LESS tourists but that will need some Game Changer projects in order to spread visitation during the quieter times of the year in order to support a Sustainable Community. The Car Ferry was one of those that will bring visitors in the many quieter months of the year in which we see less people working in local
Visitor economy businesses and shop and business closures. In other words if we had these projects the benefit to the community is MOVING AWAY from mass tourism to more sustainable numbers that support the unique environment of the island.

Reply
Cr Geoff Ellis
10/3/2018 07:20:07 am

Mr Pandazopoulos, the larger proportion of our residents and ratepayers don't have the time to read all the strategic documents relating to any particular issue yet still seem to be able to form reasonable opinions based on common sense interpretation of the facts of any matter, though it is nice of you summarize the overarching strategy for tourism in one part of Bass Coast so succinctly.

I encourage our residents to attend the consultation sessions (as listed on the BCSC website) or follow the links to express their views and concerns.

"Stop the buses" isn't the exact intent of all the game changer initiatives but environmental sustainability is the flip side of economic sustainability in Bass COAST.

Reply
Phil Wright
10/3/2018 08:18:54 am

Congrats to Catherine for elevating BCP to a point where key players like Ann Davie, Tim Shannon, Panda and Cr Ellis are contributing. A strong community requires open and spirited discussion.

The best part of the of these discussions is the reference to the two most valuable PI documents – Capabiity, Conflict and Compromise (CCC) and VES.

My criticism of Tim’s piece is his conclusion that we should be making farmland economically viable. I assume that this means for farming. The small land mass on the island as a % of Australia’s farming is miniscule. The best use of the rural land must be for vegetation restoration and pathways with small landscaped tourism facilities. We have now moved past farming to agri-business, the abundant 60s riding on the sheeps back’are a distant memory. The opportunity to deliver the island to future generations as a world best off-peak tourist destination is unlimited but requires 21st century thinking.

As CCC says we must provide much of the land for agriculture use but in 2018, this part of the rural land is for landscape value for international visitors. CCC says we must reward farmers for vegetation and public access. Written in 1975, we have not commenced this journey. The RLUS (Rural Land Use Strategy) remains the most unimaginative document of council strategies.

The recent purchase of the Vektor land by PINP is the most significant event in land-use. We must all get involved in developing this concept which can benefit all parties - conservation, tourism, dog owners and agriculture, it is limited only by our imagination. We then move to the next strategic environmental land acquisition (VES Action 57)

Great to see Panda referring to VES and his comment that the car ferry is one Game Changer. The flaw in the car ferry Business Case is the non-compliant ILM in Appendix A. DTF (Treasury and Finance) guidelines have 16 questions for an ILM which include:
• has problem been clearly identified and
• have all options been considered.

As Ann Davie has stated – here we go again. The car ferry is a solution without a problem. Somehow 30 cars per hour will change the local economy. 30 cars cross the bridge in one minute.

Unfortunately, the car ferry is consuming all available oxygen and the two real potentials for off-peak business growth are being ignored. Firstly. Holiday home owners must be encouraged to come down 15 weekends per year not 10. Cowes and San Remo are not developed as vibrant visitor centres like Lorne or Castlemaine. The island and Bass Hills with it’s disused rail line can become the world best pathway network where Melb people come regularly in winter and enjoy the winter. A ride into Cowes, swim in the Aquatic Centre then enjoy live music, art, performance in the closed off main streets every Sunday. Holiday home owners are our captured customers who do not require $80m to enjoy our island and will continue to visit as the crowding of Melb continues with unabated population groth.

The second opportunity is the north-east of the island being used with restricted private cars – speed bumps in Coghlan Rd. It is a magnificent recreational area protected from south-west wind. It is all about encouraging walkers and riders through Harbeson / KCC / Oswin Roberts / Conservation Hill and Silverleaves. What has happened to Action18 of VES – tourism roads plan ?

Councilors and officers are obligated to confront issues without bias. The council web page lists 4 benefits of the car ferry and ignores negatives – sand erosion, visual obstruction, traffic in central Cowes, parking and who will maintain. Cr Ellis and other councilors should have read and ensured that the consultant answered the 16 questions required for a compliant DTF that is required for a Business Plan before releasing the plan for comment. Short sighted and divisive problem solving serves no purpose.

Hopefully, there is a good attendance at tonight’s Fact or Fantasy meeting where all will be revealed.

Reply
Catherine Watson
10/3/2018 11:08:51 am

Congratulations to Tim for questioning the great shibboleth that growing tourism is a boon. Up to 3000 people a night visit the penguin parade but it’s hard to understand the benefits to the island community or environment.

Phil is right that future use of Phillip Island’s farmland is the key. Many European farmers are paid to revegetate and maintain their land for landscape, wildlife and ecotourism purposes. Imagine farmers working in partnership with PINP and much of the island slowly returning to its pre-European condition.

Reply
James Glover
10/3/2018 09:09:33 pm

That's not what "shibboleth" means.

Reply
Catherine Watson
11/3/2018 09:25:41 am

You sent me scurrying to a dictionary, James, as I used the word without thinking about it. But the Merriam-Webster seems to bear out my use:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shibboleth
Definition of shibboleth. 1 a : a word or saying used by adherents of a party, sect, or belief and usually regarded by others as empty of real meaning. the old shibboleths come rolling off their lips.

Jan Fleming
11/3/2018 09:38:23 am

Great comment Catherine.
Let us preserve the natural bush and the farmland and the diversity of this beautiful island.
Don't leave it too late. As Joni Mitchell said many years ago, you "pave paradise and put up a parking lot."

Reply
nerida
14/3/2018 11:04:06 am

We are so car dependant, what if the ferry was just for busses and pedestrians ? Although i do think we need to care more for the tourists before we bring more, especially with the ocean and wildlife issues.
While locals complain a lot abt tourist traffic, city dwellers face queues and grid lock every day. I remind myself of that coming in or out of cape Woolamai on holiday weekends, its slow but not impossible.
I'd really like to see a summer Speed limit from the wonthaggi turn off to Cowes. ( yep this summer my day was hit driver turned stright into her out of back beach rd and last sat me rear ended stationary before silver waters, no one injured ) It's like drivers get affected by "holiday mode" and just don't pay attention.
So 'Holiday Mode Speed Limits - HMSL for the Island' please

Reply



Leave a Reply.