Warrnambool council urged to cash in on 'boom' tourism trend

Jeff Cottrill, who calls himself a dedicated grey nomad, asked the council if it intended to do anything about attracting the thousands of caravans, motorhomes and campers to stay in Warrnambool.

"Portland is a recreational vehicle friendly town and grey nomads pass Warrnambool and spend money there," Mr Cottrill told the council during public question time at last Monday's meeting.

"The average grey nomad couple spends between $700 and $1000 a week, which the WCC is gifting to Portland.

"Grey nomads travel in self-contained vehicles and don't and will not stay in expensive caravan parks.

"They need not much more than a paddock.

"There is very big money to be made by Warrnambool businesses with very little expense to council."

Mr Cottrill asked whether the council was going to set up a free camping site as well as an accessible dumping point for motor homes and caravans to dump their wastewater and sewerage.

The council's acting chief executive officer Vikki King said free camping, under its various definitions, was a national issue with a range of views and policy approaches by local governments.

"Warrnambool City Council's existing position is that guests to the city must stay in registered accommodation," she said.

"This position provides support for Warrnambool's registered accommodation providers and the cost of compliance that comes with it.

"Accommodation providers have been one of the most adversely impacted sectors during COVID-19 restrictions and it remains important that this sector continue be supported.

"Warrnambool's position on free camping is in line with many coastal cities across Australia in the large-scale travel markets and depth and diversity of commercial accommodation offerings."

Ms King said there was a free access to a dump point in Warrnambool at the Surfside Holiday Park but Mr Cottrill said that because its location was within a paid accommodation complex, many didn't realise they could use it.

He said there was 750,000 registered recreational vehicles in Australia and it was hard get a caravan at the moment.

"It's the boom tourism," he said.

He said he was amazed that the city wasn't trying to capitalise on it.

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