YVRTA president Ross Stevens is calling for a major tourism hub at Lilydale.
By Kath Gannaway
VISITORS to Yarra Ranges want to talk to people, not machines, was a message delivered strongly by members of the Yarra Valley Regional Tourism Association last week.
Incoming president Ross Stevens told the more than 70 tourism stakeholders attending the YVRTA annual general meeting at Rochford Winery last Wednesday, that the tourism industry was changing at a rapid pace.
Challenging what he said was a differing perception by Yarra Ranges Council about the need for people-driven visitor information centres, he called for a major regional centre to be built at Lilydale.
Mr Stevens said part of Yarra Ranges Council’s tourism strategy is for computer kiosks in smaller townships, such as Warburton and Yarra Glen, and that there was no longer-term planning for manned centres apart from retaining the status quo at Healesville.
“What we are saying is we need a tourism hub at Lilydale,” he said.
The facility which would service the Melba, Warburton and Maroondah highways, as well as feeding into areas of the Dandenongs through Mt Evelyn and Silvan, would include a food and wine information hub, alongside the traditional information and booking services.
The call comes as the YVRTA-funded Visitor Information Centre (VIC) in Healesville announced it had cracked the $1m mark in bookings for the first time.
Making the announcement, VIC manager Jo Begg said it had been a difficult year following the 2009 bushfires, but that the landmark figure had been achieved largely because of the investment in a second booking officer, and the ‘people’ factor.
She said most people book over the phone and that on-line bookings were decreasing.
Mr Stevens said information centres were integral to the visitor experience and that a major factor was delivering information where and when it is most relevant, and by people who are passionate and knowledgeable about the region.
“We have an ageing information centre in Healesville that is not strategically positioned, and we know 95 per cent of the traffic comes up one road, the Maroondah Highway through Lilydale,” he said.
“We have nothing there, and believe me, people want to talk to people.”
Mr Stevens said while tourism marketing organisations such as TourismVic and Yarra Valley and the Dandenongs Tourism were working to draw people into Yarra Ranges as a region, it was only part of the story.
“Their job is to market the region to local, national and international markets. Our job, when people are here, is to make sure they come back and that we provide a great service while they are here,” he said.
Mr Stevens said a new visitor survey of at least 300 people would be carried out in October by YVRTA members in Warburton, Healesville and Yarra Glen.
The survey data will replace what the YVRTA believes is a limited survey on which Yarra Ranges Council presently bases aspects of its tourism strategy in relation to information centres.
“Once that survey is done we will have the information to say confidently that information centres do work, they just work in a different way now,” Mr Stevens said.
“We will then be saying to the powers that be, ‘how do we go about getting that central hub’?”
Meanwhile, the public are invited to visit VIC on Saturday for an open day and barbecue as part of Victoria Tourism Week, to showcase the valuable contribution the tourism industry makes to the local area.
Sausages will sizzle between noon and 3pm, but people can visit from 9am to 5pm. The VIC is at the old courthouse, opposite Healesville railway station.
