BOTH Kiama council and the municipality’s tourism board have vowed to move beyond past friction and seek a more collaborative approach to ensure the latter’s future.
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A long and at times bitter dispute between Kiama council and Kiama Tourism reached a conclusion in February with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two organisations.
At one stage, former Kiama Tourism chairman Brian Longbottom blasted what he said was an “arrogant” Kiama council for its proposal to move aspects of the municipality's tourism management in-house.
In 2014, Kiama council halved its contribution to Kiama Tourism to about $160,000 after a review of how the council spent its tourism funds.
The review was sparked after the Kiama Tourism board appeared to be having problems.
The council has since used funds previously allocated to Kiama Tourism to appoint its own tourism manager.
At Tuesday night’s council meeting, councillor Neil Reilly successfully moved a motion.
This was that council, in light of the Kiama Tourism board’s recent presentation to council and their ongoing alliance, extend funding to ensure the board of Tourism’s financial future is secure; council’s strategic marketing plans for the short and longer terms are not compromised; and sufficient staff are able to manage the oncoming festive season’s influx.
Cr Reilly also moved this be achieved in a formal, yet collaborative manner with the board.
Cr Reilly said he would like to see the two organisations work collaboratively on marketing campaigns for the autumn and winter periods to boost tourism and the local economy during this off-season period.
“For this area, tourism is the biggest, most profitable and important industry,” Cr Reilly said.
“Previous issues between council and the board of Tourism have in my view been resolved.
“Now is the time to act in a positive way to support this most vital industry.
“The benefits of well-managed Tourism are many and include employment, increased local spending, diversification, infrastructure even social benefits…we can’t just ignore this and we are legislatively obligated to support local tourism.”
Cr Reilly said that the Tourism board had “turned from a difficult situation into a very positive situation for this community”.
He sought a more collaborative approach in the future, but didn’t yet want to propose a dollar figure on council’s support.
Cr Dennis Seage also weighed into the debate at Tuesday night’s meeting.
“Once upon a time we used to fire bullets at Japanese and German people, and now we do commerce with both countries,” he said.
“It’s probably a situation where we did lock horns with Kiama Tourism at one stage, but I think there’s been a complete turnaround.”
He also described Kiama Tourism as currently being a “sinking ship”, believing the projected figures shown to council meant they would be unlikely to sustain their current position if not given immediate assistance.
Mayor Brian Petschler believed there was still a positive relationship between the two, which was still in the development stage.
“There were some figures presented in that presentation which suggested they’re currently eating into their reserves,” he said.
“As directors they have a responsibility to ensure they don’t trade insolvent.”
Cr Petschler said there had been a time when Tourism’s governance issues were “quite extreme”, and had experienced other issues, which he believed had abated.
Jamie Warren, chair of Kiama Tourism welcomed the move, saying Kiama Tourism has achieved a great deal over the past 12 months.
“We are all working extremely hard to ensure we achieve the best results possible for tourism in our region.
“Kiama Tourism looks forward to continuing our collaboration with Kiama council and sincerely thank council for this additional support.”
Mr Warren said believed Kiama Tourism was a stable body, citing their “excellent, functional, hard-working board with a lot of expertise”.
He also believed the friction between the two organisations was a thing of the past.
“We’ve covered a lot of ground in the past 12 months; the relationship is very good,” he said.