The banner for my website has till now been a nice photo of the GASP boardwalk near Montrose Bay. When I started, GASP was a thing, there was a group called GASP and they did stuff. No longer. Council pulled the financial plug. The boardwalk is now in ‘care and maintenance’. That decision was just one more step as tourism became a word barely mentioned or written.
My banner now reflects the reality of Glenorchy as a city which is not focused on tourism. The term “northern suburbs” may rankle but there is significant truth to it. While we have great businesses and industrial enterprises, our city is largely suburbia. This may have made council’s decision last year to quickly disband the economic development team as the first major cost-cutting exercise very easy.
Hence my new banner with text in Glenorchy magpie colours on a suburban background.
Let’s take a closer look at tourism.
At the June 2023 council meeting we heard that council had entered the 2023 Tasmanian Tourist Towns competition. The meeting heard the script of the voice-over to the video submitted by council with their entry. Oddly though, the only tourism mentioned in recent years is art or cultural tourism which did not rate a mention in the video.
While it is admirable that council wants our city regarded as a significant tourist destination, most residents of Glenorchy think we’re not there yet.
Let me first clarify what I mean by a tourist destination. A place that tourists will visit and spend time at. Not simply performance venues or places where we go to experience a performance. MONA for example is a tourist destination because people can simply spend time there. On the other hand, MyState Arena is not currently a tourist destination. People do not go there to simply spend time; they go there for events such as sporting or dancing competition, or concerts. If MyState was interesting architecture, it could be promoted as such and become a place where people with that interest would spend time looking around. It would become a tourist destination.
While many will rightly point to MONA as an internationally renowned museum and gallery, the reality is that the majority of MONA patrons travel to MONA from Hobart by car or ferry or bike, undertake the full range of MONA activities, and then immediately return to Hobart the same way. MONA is a destination; Glenorchy isn’t. Despite this, and despite David Walsh’s own admission that the presence of MONA has not economically boosted the surrounding area or gentrified it, council persists in bending over backwards to support it.
Here are some locations in Glenorchy that I’d regard as genuine tourist destinations.
• Goulds Lagoon
• Mountain bike tracks at Tolosa
• Moonah Arts Centre
• Tasmanian Transport Museum
• Austins Ferry cottage
but they do not make our city a tourist destination.
Council has in the past made major efforts to encourage tourism. Council had a tourism plan in the past last mentioned in its 2005-2025 Community Plan and there have been Visitor Taskforces. But when I recently asked council for a copy of that tourism plan, they couldn’t find it.
Glenorchy may well be a leader in creative industry. It may well have many strong sporting clubs and organizations. It may well be innovative. But we have a long way to go to become a tourist destination. And council has to lead.
Sources
Appendices to the Glenorchy Community Plan 2005 – 2025
Appendix 1 provides a status report of the actions that were listed in the original Glenorchy Community Plan. The 2004/5 review of the Community Plan included considerable public consultation during which the community was asked to provide comments about Glenorchy. These comments are included as Appendices 2 and 3. The document does refer to a “Glenorchy Tourism Plan”.
Economic Development Strategy 2020-2025
Page 2 quote “… when I first opened Mona, I expected to see some services (coffee shops, restaurants etc.) cropping up in the area. I don’t know why that hasn’t happened, except that there may be some zoning issues, but Local Pizza recently opened in Claremont, and it is exactly the sort of business I was hoping for. I hope it is the vanguard of more quality, consumer-oriented businesses to come. So, start selling stuff in the Glenorchy region. I’m buying. David Walsh, MONA”
Page 9 medium-term action “Create an urban village at Moonah Investigate the establishment of a business improvement district to attract retail, hospitality and tourism businesses to Moonah and enhance public spaces to create an urban village”.
Page 17 short-term action “Spread the MONA effect Work with MONA, other tourism operators and local businesses to encourage visitors to come to Glenorchy when visiting nearby attractions”
Glenorchy City of Arts Strategy 2040
Page 26 “2.2.3 Collaborate with MONA, the major arts festivals, commercial event presenters and tourism businesses to support and increase arts and cultural tourism in Glenorchy.”
Page 29 refers to “our ambition to be one of Tasmania’s cultural tourism draw cards”.
Glenorchy City Observer 