Part 1 - Shire of Ashburton

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Shire of Ashburton Tourism Strategy January 2011 2.5 Shire of Ashburton Visitor Destination SWOT Analysis The following Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis reviews the tourism operating environment of the Shire and destination. 2.5.1 Strengths - Shire of Ashburton’s location within the Australia’s North West region – a popular visitor destination with a professional destination marketing body in place. - The Shire is located at the junction between the three State RTOs of Australia’s North West, Australia’s Coral Coast, and Australia’s Golden Outback. Significant visitor traffic travels to and through the Shire of Ashburton boundaries. - The Shire includes important and major nature based “iconic” tourist attractions including the Karijini National Park, Millstream Chichester National Park, and significant coastal assets including the Mackerel and Montebello Islands. o Karijini National Park is rated as the equal second most “iconic” visitor attraction in Western Australia and offers people highly memorable experiences. The National Park attracts in excess of 100,000 visitors per annum (source: CALM visitor estimates). The region also attracts strong support from organised group travel operators. Karijini NP is included in all major coach and group 4WD tour product that travels through the region and many stop at Tom Price to use local services. o The Mackerel Islands has been a popular fishing destination for many years however over more recent times improvements to the accommodation and supporting facilities and a highly focused approach to marketing has seen the island based tourism operation significantly improve its destination profile. The resort operator’s claim to receive over 10,000 bed nights each year making this an important holiday and leisure destination within the Shire. - Within the Shire there are two major holiday and leisure tourism accommodation operators; Karijini Eco Retreat and the Mackerel Islands Resort. These operators are highly experienced hospitality operators and are actively promoting their respective destinations in external marketplaces. Working with, and leveraging from this tourism expertise should be a priority. - The Shire of Ashburton is a strong supporter of tourism in the region evidenced through its investment in visitor servicing, destination marketing and infrastructure planning. - Tom Price Visitor Centre is well located, in a high profile townsite location, attracts significant visitor numbers and is an important information and access point for travellers to Karijini National Park. The Tom Price Visitor Centre is a professional operation well managed and operated by the Shire. Tom Price is one of 43 formally Accredited Visitor Centres operating within WA and authorised to use the signage. - Tom Price is one of the most attractive towns in the inland Pilbara with tree lined streets and a relaxed country town atmosphere. - Onslow Visitor Centre is also well located in a high profile location with an interesting museum visitor attraction attached. Local committee operated with close relationship with local government. - Both Visitor Centres report generally good relationships with tourism members. Memberships to both Visitor Centres are relatively small in number however appear supportive and enthusiastic for local tourism growth. - Paraburdoo is also located close to the Karijini National Park and provides the main air access via the Paraburdoo Airport receiving some 24 flights from Perth each week. 15
Shire of Ashburton Tourism Strategy January 2011 - Activities in and surrounding Tom Price include a highly popular Pilbara Iron Mine tours, Kings Lake recreational area, Mt Nameless 4WD and walk trail, some limited retail operations at the town centre. - Activities in and surrounding the Onslow townsite include interesting history, boardwalk and heritage trail walks, birdlife, on and offshore fishing, museum, Ashburton River. - Strong Indigenous cultural heritage exists throughout the region however yet to be delivered successfully to tourist markets. - Pastoral heritage is also a point of interest to visitors and forms an integral part of the story of the Pilbara landscape over the past 100 years. Although overshadowed in modern day times by the resources sector, pastoral stations continue to operate throughout the region and offer visitors a different and rewarding station stay experience. Mt Florence Station Stay is currently the only station stay accommodation promoted via the Tom Price Visitor centre. - Tom Price offers a relatively high standard and range of community recreational and leisure facilities and potentially open to use by visitors. - Holiday and leisure travellers predominantly travel to region via self drive vehicles and therefore travel plans can be influenced by effective signage along major road access routes and via Visitor Information Centres. - Region has relatively good transport infrastructure considering the geographical isolation and distances involved. Air services between Perth and Paraburdoo are high frequency (daily) and standard of existing roadworks is considered very good. This high standard of infrastructure is due to the level of local resource industry investment. Tourism is well placed to leverage off this extensive resource industry investment. - Strong growth in local populations’ discretionary incomes as the resources industry enjoys sustained growth periods. - There is increased focus on regional investment by the State Government into the Pilbara, better delivery of facilities and services, the Pilbara Cities Vision and Royalties for Regions programs good examples of this increased focus. Currently there are good opportunities to source a range of government grant programs. 2.5.2 Weaknesses - The region has a very strong focus upon the resources industry. Service providers such as accommodation and transport operators focus primarily on meeting the needs of the resources sector at the expense of the tourist market. There is an identifiable lack of accommodation supply for tourist markets throughout the Pilbara and this is also the case for the Shire of Ashburton. - The Shire is located at the junction of the three major tourism RTO’s (ANW, ACC, and AGO) and in addition to being a strength it is also a potential weakness in that the Shire may “miss out” on opportunities by being located one each region’s extremities. The onus is therefore on the Shire to actively drive initiatives with these RTOs. - The nature of the visitor servicing industry is that it is difficult to generate revenue from providing this service and therefore a direct cost to operators of Visitor Centres such as the Shire. There is a consumer expectation that information at Visitor Centres will be provided free of charge. Visitor servicing requires ongoing investment of resources to maintain delivery of effective services. The lack of a large local tourist accommodation base denies both the Tom Price and Onslow Visitor Centres the ability to generate significant tourist accommodation booking commissions and thereby offset everyday operational costs. - Difficulty in sourcing suitably qualified tourism and hospitality trained professional for employment in local industry and Shire tourism roles. 16
Page 1 and 2: The Shire of Ashburton Tourism Dest
Page 3 and 4: Shire of Ashburton Tourism Strategy
Page 7 and 8: CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Rep
Page 15 and 16: 1.10 General Global Trends in Trave
Page 21: Shire of Ashburton Tourism Strategy
Page 73 and 74:
Shire of Ashburton Tourism Strategy
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Location Amenities Tourism Destinat
show all

Part 1 - Shire of Ashburton

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?