A Sign of the Times in Hervey Bay
Earlier this week Peppers Pier Resort and the Bayswater Hotel and Restaurantin Hervey Bay went into receivership.
It was only a few years ago that Peppers Pier Resort was heralded as the beginning of a new age of tourism in Hervey Bay but it looks as though that new age never quite dawned. Tourist numbers are down and in an effort to maintain occupancy rates the resort was charging well below the market rate. As one industry insider said to me this week: “it’s hard to make any money when you’re charging 2.5 star rates for 5 star accommodation”.
Included in the receivership at the resort are 20 units which does make you wonder how the people who invested money in all the other units are doing. It also makes you wonder when either the Fraser Coast Regional Council or the Tourism Board is going to wake up to the fact that Hervey Bay lost its stranglehold on the whale watching market at least two years ago.
September 12th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
The more Hervey Bay tries to emulate Noosa, Cairns, the Gold Coast etc,
the more we will fail. What we should be doing is promoting our differences, layed back, peaceful, quiet beaches, lack of crowds.
Try opening up an old mine for the tourists, clean out the river Mary and have trips down the river and out into the sea and over to Fraser.
We can be the best Hervey Bay or the worst Gold coast, take your pick.
But whatever you do, stop whinging and get off your asses, the world owes you nothing.
Jonangel
September 12th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
I agree totally John … and so do the people behind Holiday Hervey Bay – those guys are trying to encourage the Tourism Board, the Council and anyone else who will listen to them to look for alternative attractions to promote.
Unfortunately the resistance to any suggestion that doesn’t include whales or Fraser Island is hard to shift.
September 13th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Give it a couple of years, when the economy is in another upswing, and there will be another new development heralded as the beginning of a new age of tourism – that’s how it’s been for years – a cycle of boom/bust/boom/bust. It all evens out at the end of the day…
The day Hervey becomes like the GC is the day I stop going.
(I currently live on the GC…:(..)
September 16th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Once again the rumor mill has misrepresented some important facts!
Peppers and Bayswater as businesses are both tunrning a profit with reasonbly high patronage.
The developers of Peppers Pier Resort and freehold title holder of Bayswater have gone into receivership due to over capitalising original funding loans for the site developement not operating losses.
AND tourist numbers are up in Fraser Coast despite the WFC and drops in visitor numbers to other regions.
I do agree though we need more attraction than Hervey the Whale & Fraser the Island. If you visit for a week, after doing the whale cruise and fraser island tour, there is bugger all to do except sit in your hotel and watch crappy local TV.
September 16th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
P.S. Some one is going to pick up a bargain buying either of those businesses at the bank foreclosure prices.
September 25th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Gee Greg, I wonder who you work for????
September 25th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
HB Gossip has become a series of thinly disquised adds. I think that adds should be noted as sush.
October 9th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Sink a ship or more (like they did at the SSC, or at Tangalooma) for diving only exclude it from fishing, one more string to the bow.
October 9th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Peter I think that idea – which is a good one – has been put forward several times but someone, who was once on Council but is no longer, knocked it on the head as being way too much trouble.
And now that the Council is more concerned about not playing favorites it’s unlikely that they’ll put the effort into something like sinking an old vessel that would benefit Hervey Bay but not the rest of the Council’s area.
Stuart
November 14th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Open a nudist beach on Fraser Island, it will bring tourists from all over the world because of the great weather we have here. Have boats taking people over to the beach and fetching them. These people will need accommodation and want to eat. They will spend lots of money here so it will create jobs. No, I am not a pervert and yes, I am a nudist. This is 2009 and Hervey Bay could become a boom town.
Now I will wait for the PC idiots to respond and complain.