Wollongong needs more accommodation to help attract tourists to the city, Destination Wollongong says. Photo: Wollongong City Council.
Destination Wollongong has compiled a wish list of actions for Wollongong Council to consider in a bid to attract tourists and address the city’s accommodation shortage.
The action list responds to council’s draft Tourism Accommodation Review Strategy which is on public exhibition until 4 November.
And the organisation is thinking outside the box with some of its ideas.
Acting general manager Jeremy Wilshire said attracting tourists and adding more accommodation was a multi-layered challenge and great opportunity for the city.
“What about a nature-based adventure park, or a wave pool, a film studio, the southern hemisphere’s most radical skate park, a golf entertainment complex, an LA-style beachside basketball precinct, a festival site or convention centre,” he said.
“It’s not just about more beds. Major events provide a great sugar hit for the economy, but we must also offer a concierge service and targeted inducements to attract permanent products that contribute to our lifestyle and enriches the lives of locals and visitors.
“High land values are an inhibitor, but the region can be an attractive proposition for any of these things if we’re progressive in providing incentives, imaginative in shared land use, willing to unlock dormant blocks, and prescriptive in what we want.”
Some of the suggestions to increase accommodation include the creation of eco-accommodation, co-locating motels with suburban clubs, and identifying key sites around the Port Kembla area ahead of a potential cruise terminal.
Mr Wilshire has also called on council to review planning controls and zoning laws.
“Planning controls obviously play a crucial role in hotels getting out of the ground, so having council proactively address this is a welcome initiative. But there are obviously a number of mitigating factors when only one of the last eight approved developments actually came to fruition,” he said.
“We need to act decisively when you consider the lead times required for hotels and the feeder opportunities on the horizon – from Western Sydney Airport to the redevelopment of BlueScope land, a potential cruise terminal, master plans for Warrawong and the WIN Stadium precinct, and soon-to-open Great Southern Walk and Illawarra Escarpment mountain bike trail network.
“A hand-in-glove approach is needed across all levels of government, industry bodies and private landholders. Let’s agree on a few specific and practical solutions while we work together to tackle some big-ticket items.”
Mr Wilshire said once residential blocks were approved, they were lost to public use forever.
“It is more difficult to prove feasibility and gain investment for hotels,” he said.
“Intervention by way of incentives is needed to address the imbalance. Hotels and serviced apartments stimulate our local economy, as do attractions and shared-use facilities that provide locals with jobs, host events, engage the community and attract visitors.
“As a city, we’re doing some amazing stuff – let’s be bold, imaginative and prescriptive in what we want Wollongong to convey and offer.”
Destination Wollongong’s 10 initial action items are:
- Review planning controls across zoning, land uses, height and floor space allowances and parking requirements to provide incentives and bonuses to developers to make hotels and CBD serviced apartments a more financially viable proposition
- Identify and incentivise key CBD locations (on private or public land) for five-star hotel developments, with prescriptive conditions to fill market gaps
- Explore opportunities to increase the number and quality of cabins in the three council tourist parks to maximise capacity
- Ensure the WIN Stadium precinct master plan features a convention centre as a key attractor for Wollongong’s conferencing market
- Facilitate and incentivise mid-market motels in Wollongong’s suburbs to co-locate with clubs and/or enter into private-public partnerships to create a circular economy
- Identify and incentivise key sites in the Port Kembla district to service the BlueScope redevelopment and potential cruise terminal
- Amend planning guidelines and provide bonuses to allow suitable sites for small-scale eco-accommodation along the route of the Great Southern Walk and Illawarra Escarpment mountain bike trail network
- Advocate for a suitable accommodation offering as part of the Warrawong foreshore master planning process, given the site’s appropriate SP3 zoning, location and size
- Commission research by industry specialists to forecast the type, scale and location of accommodation required in the next 10 to 20 years
- Create a dedicated concierge service that targets new tourism product in priority sectors and locations.
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