Economic Development & Tourism Strategy
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Consultation has concluded
The Council's Draft Economic Development & Tourism Strategy has been endorsed for public consultation, and now we want to hear from you!
Your Input Matters
We encourage community members, businesses, and industry stakeholders to provide their valuable input. Your feedback will play a crucial role in shaping the final report.
How to Participate
Share your thoughts and ideas to help us create a strategy that benefits everyone. Your contributions will help ensure our economic development and tourism initiatives meet the needs of our community.
Contact Information
For more information, please contact economicdevelopment@wangaratta.vic.gov.au
Help us build a better future for our community!
The strategy promotes among other things increased tourism marketing and awareness, improving the length of visitor stays in the region and advocating the Rural City of Wangaratta as a premier, year-round destination. The best way to promote tourism, and achieve many of those aspirations, would be to have a dedicated tourist information centre in the Wangaratta township – a facility anyone visiting our region would expect. We don’t, however, have such a facility. One of council’s self-declared five core functions relating to economic and tourism development is “advocate” – in other words, publicly support and recommend. That sounds a lot like a well resourced tourist information centre to me!
How about a purpose built facility on the corner of Apex Park to replace the dilapidated tower that currently stands there? Plenty of parking, plenty of tourism facilities in the area, certainly street appeal and close to the CBD. That corner never floods, but if needed the rear of the building could be on stilts (similar to the Benalla council offices).
This is an opportunity to build something, not necessarily big in size, but a big statement. We could provide interactive screens on the outside to appeal to those who like technology. We could add some legitimate history, not just the sketchy and vandalised information provided on the existing tower. We could stop traffic passing through town with a visually appealing and well resourced facility that not only promotes the whole municipality but allows visitors to explore all the wonderful resources already in the Apex Park precinct.
How do we cover the cost? Well what about tapping into something like the Regional Tourism Investment Fund - up to $5 million for innovative tourism infrastructure projects in regional and rural Victoria. Sounds like a purpose built tourist information centre to me!
Before you start the costly process of “rebranding” and developing more strategies, how about you get back to basics and get serious about promoting our region and enhancing the visitor experience.