Echuca Moama Tourism in real danger of folding in the next 12 months

Shortly after these reputed funding cuts, EMT ran out of money to continue operating the Visitor Information Centre at its heritage-listed location at 2 Heygarth St, Echuca, so it closed its doors on August 31 last year.

Both councils then struck up a deal to outsource the region’s visitor services and destination marketing with Campaspe Port Enterprise (CPE), who run the Port of Echuca. CPE was set up by CSC in 2022 as a means to grow tourism at the port.

Under CPE’s management, the new information centre opened up last September at 41 Murray Esplanade along the Port of Echuca. This agreement is currently in place until June 30, 2025.

EMT’s chair of the board of directors George Santos is convinced the viability of the member association, which has 158 members on varying packages, is at stake.

“The next 12 months, unless we find new ways of driving income, we will be in serious trouble,” he said.

“The issue with the two councils is that they removed funding midway through last year.

“The shires certainly are in a position to help and there’s no reason why they wouldn’t be able to help but for some reason, they decided not to assist Echuca Moama Tourism in having a continuing impact on our community to promote our businesses and our members.”

Mr Santos said there was a misunderstanding between EMT’s old board and both councils about what was said and what was heard, and how much money EMT was requesting.

Five new board members (Lynda Reid, Eleisha Catalano, Jacqui Wegener, Steve Shipp & Ken Collier) were voted in at EMT’s AGM on Wednesday, November 15, 2023, replacing five outgoing members (Kristy Hayes, John Hall, Rob Amos, Chris Bilkey & Paul Lavars). Mr Santos was on the board from July 1, 2023, until November 15, 2023, when he was then asked to chair the board.

Mr Santos claims that CSC was of the impression that EMT requested $800,000 a year in funding to provide these tourism services — more than double the $390,000 that the shire was previously contributing, of which $180,000 was allocated for visitor services. MRC was also reportedly providing $85,000 per annum to EMT.

“I don’t believe that the previous board was able to make the situation clear enough... I think there was some offence taken from the shires to the point of them removing funding for tourism in terminating the contract to provide visitor services,” Mr Santos said.

EMT and the shires are in disagreement about whether the old info centre closed its doors as a direct result from the funding cuts.

MRC chief executive officer Terry Dodds said the council budgeted annually for visitor services and destination marketing, and had previously outsourced both functions to EMT, but went in a different direction once the old info centre closed.

“When EMT stopped providing visitor information services in August 2023, council’s budget was fully expended by committing to an alternative solution, being the current information centre in Murray Esplanade,” he said.

“Council is open to considering destination marketing opportunities as they arise, including co-operative marketing campaigns with EMT should they put forward a proposal that outlines financial support required that council can then consider.”

Mr Dodds points to monthly statistics which he says highlight a boost in visitation at the new centre on Murray Esplanade, with “numbers increasing from 70 per day to 90 per day over a three-month period”.

CSC mayor Rob Amos said their council had transparent and thorough discussions with EMT last year and although being a corporate EMT member (paying a $10,000 yearly fee), they would be supporting CPE to run the information centre until the end of the next financial year.

“Campaspe Shire Council remains a member of EMT and has in fact increased its internal resources to work with various peak tourism bodies to further develop tourism as a vital component of the region’s economy,” he said.

“Our Economic Development and Tourism Strategy is the next step in expanding our commitment to tourism in the region.

“While this strategy continues to be developed, Campaspe Shire Council, along with Murray River Council, will extend their interim support for Campaspe Port Enterprise in running the Visitor Information Centre from the Port of Echuca until June 30, 2025.”

In the 2022-23 financial year, EMT reported a net loss of $172,217.

Although EMT was only paying a peppercorn rent of $104 per year, it was unable to pay for the labour to maintain the structurally old building, which proved too costly to heat and cool.

It also proved too costly to keep long-time workers on the books, with three clerical staff believed to have lost their jobs after the old information centre closed.

It was this situation EMT found itself in that Mr Santos says was clearly the tipping point.

“In the vicinity of half-a-million dollars was removed by both Campaspe and Murray River last year, obviously that resulted in the closure of the (information) centre,” he said.

“The Campaspe Shire maintained that they didn’t close the doors but from our perspective, they removed the funding that allowed us to employ staff to keep the doors open.”

EMT is leasing the old Visitor Information Centre building off CSC (who owns the building) until the end of 2024, so effectively the building in a prime Echuca location currently remains dormant and will remain so for another nine months.

However, like Mr Dodds, CPE chief executive officer Mark Francis says the new info centre location, which is open seven days a week, is proving successful after seeing a steady rise in visitation numbers since opening.

“Since operations commenced in September 2023 under the agreement, we have seen a consistent increase in visitors through the centre and look forward to seeing this continue into the future,” he said.

“We continue to see visitors from a diverse range of locations with the visitor profile strongly aligning with Echuca-Moama’s overall visitation locations of Melbourne, regional Victoria, regional NSW, Sydney and surrounds, Queensland as well as international visitors.”

Mr Francis said CPE and EMT were currently working together to enhance visitor services in Echuca-Moama and stressed the importance of a co-ordinated approach to destination marketing.

“Campaspe Port Enterprise is also working in collaboration with Echuca Moama Tourism to explore enhanced integrated digital visitor servicing options into the future to enable visitors to obtain the most up-to-date information in a way which meets their needs and consumption requirements,” he said.

“Echuca Moama Tourism have played an important role in destination marketing and through their strategic review identified this as the future strategic direction the organisation would pursue and focus.

“Following COVID and high river and flooding events the region has not bounced back as quickly as the industry would like and it is very important we have a co-ordinated destination marketing approach to both rebound and, into the future, grow visitation for the region.”

After losing the info centre, EMT lost membership — at the end of the 2023 financial year EMT had 270 members, but only 155 of those renewed their membership. Three new members have since joined, taking the total to 158.

Despite this, Mr Santos says EMT is uniquely placed to deliver both visitor services and destination marketing due to its IP, staff, knowledge, ability, passion and efficiency.

He’s urging his members and the community to come on board and says it’s crucial that both shires reconsider their funding positions with EMT in order for tourism to thrive in the region.

“I’m hoping that we can come to the table again and salvage the situation — we’ve certainly had the approach already with both shires, we’ve sat down and we’ve talked. So far, there’s been no great commitment from either shire,” Mr Santos said.

“We’re not angry at the shires, we’re not saying back off so and so, we’re just saying we need them to revisit the decision... they should be our major source of funding, because in essence, they will benefit the most from visitors coming to town.

“The question shouldn’t be, can they afford to support — the real question should be, can they afford not to support EMT?”

UPDATE: It seems as though questions put to the various parties involved may have fast-tracked negotiations between EMT and CSC — CSC’s recently appointed manager of tourism, arts and culture David Hughes since requested a meeting with EMT representatives, which was the first request from CSC in the past year since challenges arose. Last Thursday, Mr Hughes and CSC tourism development manager Cheryl Hammer met with Mr Santos and EMT’s general manager and membership engagement manager Naomi Murray, in what was described as a positive shift. The CSC representatives seemed open to reinvesting in EMT and asked the tourism body to submit a destination marketing funding proposal for the next 12 months, Mr Santos said. The proposal was promptly delivered by EMT after the meeting and a response from CSC was received the same afternoon indicating that they are actively considering EMT’s pitch.