AIDA calls for a rethink about tourist numbers

THE Aireys Inlet and District Association (AIDA) hopes tourism growth will be looked at more carefully as an outcome of the Great Ocean Road Action Plan.

Released last year by the state government, the plan is in response to 26 recommendations made by the independent Great Ocean Road Taskforce.

It includes the creation of a new Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority with an independent board to protect the area and its environment.

AIDA organised a forum at the Fairhaven SLSC last week, titled “Will tourism kill the Great Ocean Road?”, which was attended by about 80 people.

Speakers included Great Ocean Road Taskforce senior project officer Libby Sampson, Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation chief executive officer Jamie Lowe, Surf Coast Shire chief executive officer Keith Ballie and Great Ocean Road Coast Committee chief executive officer Vanessa Schernickau.

AIDA president Charlotte Allen said an assumption in the plan about the Great Ocean Road needed to be challenged.

“We very much welcome the Great Ocean Road Action Plan and the government trying to do something about bringing the road under one management structure.

“However, the plan is silent about how sustainable it is that the road is expected to absorb more and more tourists.

“There is an expectation that there will be more and more tourists, but there is nothing about if the government is trying to limit that.”

She said there was already evidence of lagging infrastructure along the road, such as toilets, but the representatives at the meeting had no immediate solutions.

“It’s obviously very difficult. The state government has developed a strategy that will quite radically change the way the Great Ocean Road is managed.

“They were basically saying the whole plan is unfunded, and until there is some funding to get some evidence-based information, it’s very difficult to do anything.

“AIDA as a group will certainly be looking at the sorts of things that can be done immediately.

“We’ll work to detail what our concerns are, so when there’s funding, we’ll be ready to act.”