When it comes to rolling out the welcome mat for grey nomads, some towns have ‘got it’ and others most definitely don’t.
Sadly, Australia’s sixth largest city, Newcastle, appears to be well and truly on the list of those that don’t.
A report in the Newcastle Herald is scathing of the greeting that grey nomads rolling into town are given.
Apparently, tourist information signs direct visitors to places where there is no tourist information, the tourist hotline is out of service, the city’s main tourist information centre is only open for six hours a day and is closed on Mondays, and when visitors find it, they can’t park their motorhome or caravan anyway.
The paper says the major problems are:
■ When you call a freecall hotline number for tourist information, it says the line is no longer in service and suggests the caller go to a website for more information.
■ The city’s main tourist information centre at Honeysuckle is closed on Mondays, and only opens from 10am to 4pm Tuesday to Sunday. The city’s other visitor centre is open every day, but is at The Wetlands Centre at Shortland.
■ There is no parking outside the Honeysuckle tourist information centre. While metered parking is available nearby, visitors say there is nowhere to park a motorhome or a caravan.
■ Sixteen touch-screen tourist information boards, placed at various businesses throughout the city, are being withdrawn from operation because they were plagued with technical problems and have ‘‘outlived their usefulness’’.
■ Free camping areas for those in vans and motorhomes are often filled with hoons. No public toilets are open at night.
Newcastle council told the Herald it was ‘‘aware of the issues’’ relating to tourist information, but fixing them was complicated because numerous other organisations were also responsible for the provision of tourist services. A council spokesperson told the Herald that a co-ordinated strategy across those organisations needed to be developed.
It said, however, that the road signs that lead to ‘nowhere’ are the responsibility of Roads and Maritime Services and are in the process of being removed.
Newcastle; poorly promoted. I don’t go there. Glen Innes, Glen Rest tourist park. Excellent park, friendly service, and pet friendly.
Ahh newcastle. I had a large retail business there and the council decided to help by installing parking meters to bring me customers, as a resut 6 staff lost their jobs and I got a small businesss..
It is so sad to see this happening. I am A GN and I find all over the pace that service to us is poor to say the least. Fix it people think we GN have a money tree in our vans and sure like to charge us above the proper fees. Perhaps when we GN stop and say no they will think a little clearer. I wonder how much money GN put back into the local economy?