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Comment on After years of under-achieving, tourism promoters say they are getting cracking by Russell Guy.
The general tone of underlying exasperation in this report by the Alice Springs News is widely felt. We have constructed a mega-bureaucracy around tourist promotion. There are so many cogs in the gearbox, but the wheel has no traction.
The jargon-speak, high-salaried executives quoted in your article are out of touch. The number of “Britz” type vehicles on the NT roads is considerable and if you combine that with the caravans and off-road trailers, plus the backpacker vans, it’s fairly easy to see that this mobile corps is more interested in a bush experience than hanging around Alice for an event that, as you correctly state, lasts for a maximum of four days.
Tourism promotion should get back to basics. Our past is famous, our present a muddle, our future uncertain.
Some talk about an “Aboriginal Culture Centre” while Indigenous cultures in central Australia are undermined by alcoholism and a laissez faire welfare failing to enforce work ethic.
We have the most incredible bird-life, ant-eaters, echidnas, kangaroos, emus, lizards, reptiles and flora (decorative and edible), much of which has been recorded by our pioneers and artists, but very few opportunities for tourists to access it in the wild.
QANTAS can only operate with numbers, so why don’t we work with them by drawing tourists with the natural assets of fauna, landscape, flora, culture and events, in that order. Along the way, factor in the famous past, co-operative spirit and bush hospitality without focusing on the mistakes or politics.
Compared to Western Queensland, the NT is missing the “Outback” brand big time. No imagination and no “can do” is the defining schtick. No “Waltzing Matilda”, no Songlines, just booze by the bucket load. No floor price, but a seven day a week takeaway sales, no small-picture-operator based-profiling writ large. And the imminent election is sounding the gong for more of the same.
Russell Guy Also Commented
After years of under-achieving, tourism promoters say they are getting cracking
Jason,
Please see below posted @ May 29 and the posts accompanying the Alex Nelson story with the Black Cockatoo pics.
After years of under-achieving, tourism promoters say they are getting cracking
Jason,
I’ve answered some of the questions you’ve asked here at two different posts, including the Alex Nelson story a couple of weeks ago.
I know we don’t agree on alcohol reform, but it would be appreciated if you could see your way towards agreeing (or not) on the points I’ve made about tourism, which seem to answer your questions, or is it that nobody really wants any answers, because that’s what it seems like.
Recent Comments by Russell Guy
NT-SA agreement hardly historic
Paul Keating, in his 1992 Redfern Speech, framed by speechwriter Don Watson, author of the somewhat dryly punitive opus, The Bush, also claimed a historic mandate, announcing success for Reconciliation “within the next decade.”
It’s in the nature of politics to claim credit for doing something, mostly spending tax revenue and living in hope that it won’t run out.
In my opinion, the “historic” issue is just a beat up or a sop.
Pass me another piece of Bicenttennial birthday cake, please.
Greens on Pine Gap: Move towards non-aligned foreign policy
The Greens, once declared an “alternative” political party, inherited the structural social and cultural goalposts, but they keep trying to kick goals through them.
Kinselas’s, one of Sydney’s long established pubs, was recently sold through the Sunsuper-backed Australian Pub Fund for $22m.
It was purchased in 2010 for $10m, but it’s been said that it would have gone for $40m had the NSW government’s lock-out laws not been enacted.
Senator Di Natale obviously supports other supply-reduction measures, but dealing with the structural wealth of Super funds and their investment in the alcohol industry is a bit more difficult than continuing to bang the party political donation route to government corruption.
It would be nice if politicians who eschew liberal social policy when it suits them, could tackle financial regulation through institutionalised investment in the alcohol industry.
They must be joking!
@ Charlie Carter. Sense is subjective. Some people laugh when others don’t and vice versa. Cheers.
They must be joking!
From reading these comments over a number of years, there are a lot of disgruntled people who have moved to Alice Springs in recent times, who appear to want the place to conform to their aspirations.
They talk about “remote” and “communities” in the abstract.
They have no idea of Mbantua.
They want what they think life should offer, according to what they read in the glossy inserts or la dolce vita on television.
When the lights go out and it’s time to cook dinner on an open fire, what then, ye dreaming?
What the open letter didn’t say
End-of-day performances by the many local musicians, occurring in the Mall is a great idea for so many obvious reasons.
I did this numerous times in the 1980s with musos and it’s not that difficult with a small PA system.
It creates paid work and gives a sense of cultural belonging that cannot really be created by other art forms.
Music speaks all languages. We had occasional problems with intoxicated persons, but violence was extremely rare.
I urge the council to look at this again, especially where inner-city gentrification is forcing musicians out and replacing “live” entertainment with grog shanties. Goodness, people might start dancing again.
