Packed house in Port for PBDA function

THE PORTARLINGTON Business Development Association (PBDA) held their annual function on March 12 at Bouchon Restaurant in Portarlington to a packed house.
PBDA president John Rae said the association welcomed several guest speakers including Brett Ince, director of Tourism Greater Geelong and The Bellarine.
“It was another sell-out event. Mr Ince did a 20 minute presentation then took questions from our members,” Mr Rae said.
“His presentation was really interesting, particularly about the number of visitors to Geelong doubling in the past five years.
“We had a waiting list of 27 people, plus 114 guests, it was a really popular event. Mr Ince also talked about the need for more accommodation on the Bellarine, which aligns with projects the PBDA is currently working on.”

A speaker from Bellarine Community Health (BCH) spoke about an coming campaign taking place in May to raise awareness for elder abuse.
“At this stage, we’re unsure if that campaign will go ahead but we had aligned ourselves with BCH and were looking forward to supporting them and the ‘Turn Port Purple’ campaign,” Mr Rae said.
He said in light of the corona virus pandemic the group was working on getting a list of local businesses, restaurants and cafes that the town and PBDA could throw their support behind.
“We’ve never been through something like this before. We have 170 members so we’re currently working out some sort of promotional program, to help get some money into local traders.”