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Category: Tourism / Rural Tourism

Facilities facelift aimed at winning tourists back to Cradle Mountain

Thursday, 10 Mar 2016 08:45:45 | Laura Beavis

The Cradle Coast Authority said visitors expecting a world-class experience had been let down. (Simon Cullen: ABC News)

Negative feedback from tourists has prompted a $160 million pitch to improve facilities at Cradle Mountain.

The plan hopes to turn around poor feedback received from tourists about their Cradle Mountain experience, with many vowing not to return.

The master plan of the $160 million development project was launched today in Devonport by the Cradle Coast Authority.

The plan includes a proposal for an alpine wilderness village on the site where visitors enter the park and a cable car to take visitors from the village to Dove Lake.

Cradle Coast Authority chief executive Brett Smith said tourists were disappointed by the facilities currently on offer.

"Visitors come to Cradle Mountain expecting a world-class experience and [they] are let down by aged and primitive infrastructure," he said.

"It's not the Tasmanian wilderness experience visitors expect, and the consumer research conducted reinforces this.

If consumers tell you they don't intend to revisit based on the current experience then it's time to take action and create a new set of products that will appeal and attract.

Brett Smith, Cradle Coast Authority CEO

"If consumers tell you they don't intend to revisit based on the current experience then it's time to take action and create a new set of products that will appeal and attract."

Ian Waller, the authority's regional tourism manager, said the alpine village would create a single point for visitors to organise their Cradle Mountain experience.

"We need to have an experience where people can arrive into a village ... where people can get a meal, they can get information, they can book tours, they can book canyoning tours, they can book helicopter rides, they can book four-wheel drive bike rides," he said.

"They can book all of those things ... but they can do it in comfort, they can do it in style, they can do it in a way that reflects the quality of Cradle Mountain."

He said the cable car option was being considered to try to limit the number of cars in the park.

"There's nothing more frustrating, I think, for a visitor to stand on top of Cradle Mountain and look down on to Dove Lake and sort of be blinded by the flashes of sun coming off windscreens and cars and whatever, and thinking, 'What are they all doing in a national park?'" he said.

"There's a desire to reduce the number of cars in the park and cable cars are one of the options that we're certainly considering."

Money sought from government and private sector

Mr Waller said the Cradle Coast Authority would be seeking a mix of government and private funding to implement the master plan.

"We want support from both state and federal government, but the days of governments paying the bills are gone, so we're very much on the trail now of private investors," he said.

"If we've got an alternative transport option, if we require new accommodation, if we require to construct a village, if we need to do all this, that's going to require private investment."

Mayor of the Kentish Council Don Thwaites would not comment on the cable car proposal but agreed visitor facilities needed to be improved.

"The reception point there for visitors is pretty awful at the old airstrip, it's the old gravel runway. So services are pretty basic, and they really do need an upgrade," he said.

AustraliaPlus


 

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