Hot on the tail of the Taste of Manly, Manly welcomed delegates from across NSW to the annual NSW Local Government Tourism Conference 2023. Held at the Manly Pacific these tourism experts had the perfect weather to experience the best Manly has to offer, kayaking on the Harbour to Q Station, fish and chips and an icecream on the famous Manly beachfront followed by a walk along Marine Parade to Shelly. some even took a dip in perfect conditions in Cabbage Tree Bay to admire the abundant marine life in the Aquatic Reserve. Other site visits included a trip to Palm Beach and the Barrenjoey Lighthouse.

The Council SWAT team did themselves proud in the lead up to the conference with some quick repairs and clean-ups around the area. Sadly, the pride shown in the Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve, South Steyne or Manly to Shelly, is not reflected on the ground with some very tired old infrastructure around the place. Starting at the Corso end of the beachfront, the new flags look smart but the old memorial plaques celebrating shark meshers and others on small, chipped concrete plinths in the ‘garden beds’ at the bottom of some of the pine trees leave a bit to be desired. The mess in the vicinity of the single shower pole near the Manly Life Saving club, is also a bit lacking in amenity given the huge crowds that assemble there every morning for a swim. Although, to their credit Council has removed some of the excess sand, and fixed up some of the paving stones, but the bins remain filthy, and the roots of the pine tree continue to push up the paving stones and memorial plinth. Further along the walkway there are missing interpretation signs, broken wiring along the ageing fence, sections of potholed and uneven path, fading line markings, crappy landscaping around Shelly beach and poorly maintained stormwater pipes flowing directly into the Cabbage Tree Bay.

Conference participants discussed, and then agreed, that Councils don’t have the funds to maintain infrastructure and that NSW local Councils need to do more to ensure they don’t miss out on the economic benefits of tourism. Introducing a statewide tourism levy is one way to do that.

Participants at the Conference heard that Councils need to prepare for an upswing in tourism and should ensure they do everything to leverage the benefits. Since tourists don’t directly provide revenue to Councils there was some discussion about a tourist levy, such as bed tax. The idea isn’t new. Councils including Blue Mountains and Collingwood in Victoria are exploring ways to leverage the tourist dollar via a municipal levy.

In Queensland the Local Government Association is advocating for a Visitor Levy Advisory Group for councils to work with the QLD State Government to change their Local Government Act so Council could implement a visitor levy as an ‘opt-in’ model. Northern Beaches Councillor Candy Bingham backed the idea of a levy saying that, like most regions, we provide an awful lot for tourists, adding that we have a lot of day visitors – if we’re lucky they buy an ice cream. They bring their own lunch, they use all our facilities and they leave their rubbish when they go, and we’re expected to provide enormous infrastructure.