Sustainable - Hobsons Bay

increased Tourism Victoria focus on marketing and
development of metropolitan destinations with
competitive tourism product and a coordinated
industry/Council partnership.
The strategies of Tourism Victoria seek to develop
and market Victoria’s most competitive products and
experiences including events, natural attractions and its
compact diversity.
5.8 Structure, management
& resources
5.8.1 Management
The management of this Strategy will require
effective coordination across the stakeholders and
a commitment by them to implementation of the
Strategy as agreed.
Resources will need to be appropriate for the
implementation of specific strategies and the structure
to will need to support the Strategy.
The analysis indicates the key challenges and
management constraints will come from the limited
resources (both financial and human) and the lack
of strong industry leadership in driving the strategy’s
implementation.
5.8.2 Resources
Industry funding for tourism destination marketing
is linked to the opportunity to develop an annual
cooperative marketing prospectus that provides
industry with direction and will build destination
awareness and visitation in the target markets.
Excellent resources are available in-region through
organisations such as Victoria University and its
tourism faculty. The opportunity exists to strengthen
linkages with the University and develop cooperative
research projects, for example.
The opportunity for stronger industry leadership is
linked to providing a City-wide tourism and business
structure that has greater scope to develop business
across the City and within the individual precincts (see
following).
The impact of the increased activity associated with
this Strategy’s implementation, management and
reporting has resource implications for Council
requiring detailed consideration.
5.8.3 Structure
The effective management of tourism strategy for
Hobsons Bay cannot be done by Council alone. The
Victorian Tourism Alliance highlights the importance
of an effective industry, Council and wider community
partnership for effective tourism destination
management. 31 While there is no actual tourism
association for Hobsons Bay it is currently serviced
by four independent traders’ associations located at
Newport, Altona, Williamstown and Laverton. Each
Association receives funding from Council to assist in
their operations and implementation of their business
plans. In 2005/06 this funding totalled $85,000. The
focus of the associations is on local area issues and
promotions.
Analysis indicates that the traders’ groups rely on the
hard work of a few people and that with very limited
resources significant outputs from the individual
associations are not likely.
The strategies associated with this plan require both
a focus on the identified tourism areas and also a
considerable level of across Council area cooperative
development and marketing. Under the current
structure for management of the Strategy it will
rely heavily on Council’s Tourism Officer within the
Arts, Events and Tourism Unit to implement actions
and manage Strategy coordination and monitoring.
Industry implementation will be challenging though
the dispersed trader associations.
The opportunity exists to develop a City-wide
structure that provides mechanisms for industry
leadership in partnership with Council and allows
for wider community involvement to ensure
sustainable tourism development. This would
concentrate resources and better support delivery of
Council tourism and related economic development
initiatives. Current communities of interest (Altona,
Williamstown, Laverton and Newport) would still
be accommodated but through mechanisms such as
project action groups that put less of a long term drain
on the handful of hard workers.
5.8.4 Stakeholder involvement
& communications
Council is committed to effective stakeholder
involvement and communications. This Strategy and
associated five Year Action Plan will require effective
strategies to build and sustain stakeholder involvement
and to communicate Strategy implementation, outputs
and outcomes.
Key opportunities identified in the analysis include:
• Increased stakeholder involvement though
development of a City wide tourism and business
group or association.
• Development of an associated communication
plan for the group or association.
• Development of associated tourism or project
action groups to focus on specific precinct
specific initiatives or needs (eg review a draft
activity centre plan or develop a shopping
promotion).
• Use Council’s communications to provide regular
(at least quarterly) update on Strategy
implementation, outputs and outcomes.
5.9 SWOT analysis
This analysis is based on the SWOT developed during
the initial consultation phase – see Attachment 1.
5.9.1 Strengths
Hobsons Bay has three
substantial competitive
advantages over other
Melbourne metropolitan
areas.
• Nature based and outdoor activities. The
area has world class wetlands and an abundance of
migratory birds, boating in protected waters, fishing,
a well developed walking and bike trail network and
large areas of public land linked to the coastal location.
These distinct attributes are of increasing appeal to the
VA, SA, and TFL segments.
• History and heritage. For Hobsons Bay, the
combined maritime and transport heritage is unique in
metropolitan Melbourne. The three transport nodes
of Williamstown (maritime; also a working harbour),
Newport (railway heritage) and Laverton/ Point Cook
(military aviation heritage) also provide a strong focus.
The West has the Works has been flagged as a linking
promotional theme. The military aviation heritage is
already well developed at the Point Cook Museum, the
maritime heritage is emerging through development of
the Williamstown Maritime Precinct, and significant
railway assets are held at the Newport yards. Appealing
for families (TFL), SA & VA (maritime and aviation
bias).
• A village feel at Williamstown, Altona and
Newport created by the area’s coastal location,
heritage, culture and the absence of major urban
thoroughfares. Williamstown is already a lead
destination in Western Melbourne based around
its appealing cultural and heritage attributes and its
historic seaport location in a sheltered peninsula. This
atmosphere is appealing to urban visitors, providing an
opportunity to ‘chill out’ for short periods.
5.9.2 Weaknesses
• The long association with the petrochemical
industries and the industrial landscape generally around
Altona have negative associations amongst some
potential visitor segments. 32
• The tourism industry does not have a sustained
history of cooperative endeavour. From a Hobsons
Bay perspective the specific tourism and industry
precincts are a challenge to integrate into a holistic
model.
5.9.3 Opportunities
• The major opportunity for Hobsons Bay, and the
focus of this study, is to craft a sustainable tourism
strategy reflecting the aspirations of all stakeholders
that integrates the various themes and destinations
described above into an appealing package of activities
for implementation that achieves visitor dispersal,
length of stay, and increasing visitor yield.
• As part of the above there is an opportunity to
use as principal themes the appealing coastal location,
the nature based assets and open spaces, the cultural
heritage and maritime history, transport heritage and
the village atmosphere.
5.9.4 Threats
• There are a number of potential threats to
achieving sustainable tourism relating to the changing
market place including lack of coordination and
commitment from internal stakeholder groups, and
resource and service related issues.
31
See Tourism Alliance Fact Sheets: Roles of Local, Regional Tourism Associations and of Local Councils 2004.
32
Based on feedback during the initial consultation phase.
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