The drive to allow and encourage developments in some of our most iconic national parks appears to be gathering yet more momentum.
The new chief executive of the Visit Victoria tourism body, Peter Bingeman, is the latest to call for more hotels, restaurants or nature-based activities to be built in some of the state’s most fiercely protected destinations.
“There’s no doubt that what we term ‘big nature’ is a core opportunity for us to drive visitation,” he told the Sunday Age newspaper. “We’ve got some amazing national parks and if we could offer some levels of accommodation that may entice other people to go, it just means more people will enjoy it.”
According to the tourism boss – who has been in the role a month – national parks such as Wilsons Promontory, the Grampians and Point Nepean are among those that should be opened up for more private development to boost the number of people visiting regional Victoria.
While state tourism is booming, figures reveal most visitors are flocking to Melbourne and very few stay in regional Victoria.
The Sunday Age reports that environmental groups have fought hard for years to ensure Victorian parks are preserved, while business has been calling for less red tape to make private sector investment easier, pointing to interstate tourism destinations such as the Bay of Fires and Cradle Mountain in Tasmania, and South Australia’s Kangaroo Island, as good examples of nature-based development.
Mr Bingeman told the paper that if the state was serious about meeting its visitor economy target it had to find ways to ‘accelerate regional Victoria’.
“There’s clearly some work we need to do to make sure the experience equals the brand promise,” he said. “There has to be a compromise along the way that allows for very logical, sustainable investment.”
Mr Bingeman has also called for significant new infrastructure to be built around the Twelve Apostles.
The Victorian Government has recently embarked on an ambitious new strategy to increase visitor spending in Victoria to $36.5 billion by 2025.
The main reason for lack of overnight visitors to Victorian National Parks it is far too expensive for a single traveller or 2 traveller to Camp.
You’re absolutely right Tom. Camping costs in Victorian Parks are prohibitive and generally the facilities are sub standard.
The people that will look after and respect national parks are not the people wanting the hotels and cafes. A national park is just that NOT a tourist resort.