Infrastructure

Planning for tourism infrastructure in Victoria has evolved during the past forty years from a supply-led to a demand-led approach. It was common up to the 1970s for proactive councils and development agencies to build infrastructure, ranging from caravan parks to major tourist attractions, in an effort to attract visitors to their region. Little, if any consumer research was undertaken and, as a result, there are now examples of committee-initiated and built attractions lying in mothballs around the State. It was an era of ‘build it and they will come’.

This approach is still practiced in some parts of remote rural Australia, where it would be otherwise difficult to attract visitors. Longreach’s Stockman’s Hall of Fame, the Broken Hill Outback Sculpture Park and Tenant Creek’s recreated mining tunnel are good examples. However, today’s progressive destinations respond to demand-led initiatives, where councils and tourism organizations work in concert with the private sector to streamline process. Local government may still actively pursue potential new projects, but its role is now more one of facilitation.

By having a sound strategic planning policy framework identifying precincts or individual sites where tourism development is considered appropriate, and creating an environment conducive to business, councils are in a good position to actively attract investment.

This may be achieved by the following:

Offering rate reductions or other financial assistance if such investment is considered to have long term economic benefit to the community,
Conducting seminars for developers identifying development opportunities on particular sites or precincts and outlining how council would help in facilitating a tourism proposal. This may include providing professional or design expertise, financial incentives like those mentioned above etc,
Outlining the organisational and decision-making structure within council, so that a developer is fully aware of how an application will be coordinated and assessed,
Outlining the planning assessment procedure, including the details of any pre-application consultations and possible times frames in which a decision would be likely to be made,
Offering to ‘fast track’ an application which is consistent with Council’s municipal strategic statement, or other strategic planning policy document,
Assigning a project officer whose prime focus would be to oversee the project, coordinate the community consultation program and ensure the proposal progresses through Council.

Ways for Council to facilitate tourism infrastructure development:

Coordinate decisions-making between different departments in council
Promote pre-application consultations
Involve the community at the earliest possible stages
Fast tracking appropriate applications
Assessing the development in the context of whether the proposal will resulting net community benefit
Monitor and review planning facilitation procedures.

In terms of providing its own infrastructure to service and enhance the area’s tourism industry, local government’s responsibilities may include:

Visitor information services (visitor info centres, roadside bays, electronic kiosks, welcome shops etc)
Directional and interpretative signing
Toilets (clean toilets can provide a lasting impression of a town, even for fleeting visitors)
Street scaping and roadside beautification ; especially at the entrances urban areas (A motoring party’s decision to stay in a particular town is often determined by initial appearances, including easy access to toilets, refreshments, petrol and shopping)
Well constructed and maintained roads
Recreational assets, such as parks, reserves, picnic/ bbq facilities, walking trails, lookouts etc.

The last four items should primarily benefit the residential community, so most councils’ core tourism infrastructure responsibilities generally boil down to visitor servicing and directional/ interpretative signing.

Click here to read more about planning and delivering regional tourism infrastructure projects

Click here for more information about establishing a visitor information centre.

Click here to learn about tourism road and interpretative signing