Have
your say
PEOPLE have until November 7 to comment on moves to turn WA's Geraldton
into an RV-friendly destination.
The city council has prepared a 74-page draft strategy for members of the
public to inspect and provide comments.
It points out that neighbouring areas already enjoy significantly more RV
visitors than Geraldton, with the resulting economic benefits.
The strategy believes that capturing a bigger slice of this market would
potentially pour around $9.5 million a year into the city.
The idea was to turn Geraldton, which has five full-service caravan parks,
into a regional resource hub for RV travellers and encourage them to stay
longer and spend more.
Geraldton is one of least visited destinations in the state for RVs, with many bypassing the port city in favour of other areas.
"This exercise aims to transform Greater Geraldton into a regional
resource hub for RV travellers that will generate significant additional
revenue by capturing a larger share of the wallets of RV travellers who
currently bypass Greater Geraldton in favour of nearby regions," the
strategy says.
"The expectation is that the delivery of more and better services relevant
to RV travellers will generate an improvement in positive reputation
spread by word of mouth and social media, which will drive additional
recreational vehicle traffic to Geraldton."
The strategy points out that Geraldton provides the final opportunity for
travellers heading north or east to stock up on essential supplies.
It suggests a three-phased approach to becoming RV-friendly.
The first ‒ to be completed this year ‒ includes removing "perceived
RV-unfriendly" issues and to offer services in line with travellers'
expectations.
The second would see additional dump points provided in Walkaway and
Mullewa between January and June next year.
Information bays at entries to Geraldton and a free public dump point at
Francis St car park would form part of the final phase to be completed in
June, 2016.
The strategy suggests three-month trials of short stay, low or no-cost
camping for RVs.
These would be at the Pages Beach car park for self-sufficient RVs and at
the Foreshore car park behind the Sail Inn snack bar for campervans and
small motorhomes.
Short stays would be for a maximum of 72 hours, but rangers could extend
them subject to the behaviour of travellers.
The strategy admits that the Pages Beach car park currently attracts
late-night hoons and "illicit drug activities".
But it adds: "Rangers have suggested that if this area were regularly
populated by caravans that the hoon behaviours and drug-related behaviours
would decrease or disappear."
It points out that a changing market was driving requirements for a change
in services to attract more self-sufficient recreational vehicles to
Geraldton.
"Self-sufficient vehicles are lobbying for relaxed legislation to permit
short-stay stopovers at locations where there are limited or no
facilities," it says.
"Currently, the data suggests that Geraldton is missing out on many
visitors because there are no low-cost stopover locations."
People wanting to comment on the
draft strategy can click here
council@cgg.wa.gov.au
