Part 1 - Shire of Ashburton

Shire of Ashburton Tourism Strategy
January 2011
local operator undertake the service (booking commissions retained by the VC). A regular passenger service
to the National Park would work to alleviate vehicle and parking congestion in the NP, encourage greater
extended stay and expenditure in Tom Price, provide additional income to the VC, and position Tom Price
as the main service town for Karijini. This service could also be utilised by the Department of Environment
and Conservation and management of the Karijini Eco Retreat.
Recommendation 1: Investigate the opportunity to establish a regular passenger transport service (bus
service not tour) operating during the peak visitor season between Tom Price and the Karijini NP.
Souvenir sales make up the large proportion of the Tom Price VC revenue and the Shire is to be
congratulated for refocusing commercial activities upon leveraging merchandising opportunities in‐store.
As per 2009/10 Shire VC financial reports souvenir sales have averaged around $13,600 per month with
cost of goods expenses at $9,850 per month, or an average markup of around 38% (assuming opening and
closing stocks levels over the 10 month period are roughly similar). There appears an opportunity to
improve this average markup in line with a budgeted markup around 60%.
Recommendation 2: Management of the Tom Price Visitor Centre to focus upon improving gross margins
across all souvenir and merchandising lines with the aim of achieving an average sale markup of at least
60% on cost of goods purchased.
Interestingly, commission revenue from accommodation bookings was negligible for the 12 month period
being less than $100. Typically, visitor centres representing destinations with a large accommodation base
can generate significant revenue commissions by promoting and taking bookings for local accommodation
received from visitor enquiries. Many of these VCs now utilise an online booking system called “Bookeasy”.
Visitors can book accommodation and tours online 24 hrs per day or telephone the visitor centres directly
during business hours.
To date, Tom Price has a limited number of local accommodation operators and the seasonal tourism
markets must compete with the more consistent mining and associated contractor market sources. This
lack of room capacity has hindered the ability of the Visitor Centre to perform a more active role as a local
accommodation booking agent.
A larger range of local accommodation operators is therefore required and this should be a goal of
successful long term tourism development. The establishment of the Karijini Eco Retreat is a good example
of the new investment in additional accommodation required.
The planned “tourism lodge” development within the Tom Price town centre is another project that will be
important. As new accommodation capacity is added to the Tom Price and Karijini destination the Tom
Price Visitor Centre should investigate including an online accommodation booking agency facility such as
“Bookeasy” to their operations.
Recommendation 3: Management of the Tom Price Visitor Centre to encourage more investment in local
tourist accommodation capacity and once achieved investigate opportunity to establish an effective
accommodation booking service.
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