Steve Price: Melbourne has fallen so far behind other cities, Chaddy may be the best we have to offer
Melbourne was once a renown tourist and shopping destination —now parts of its once thriving retail districts resemble ghost towns.
Opinion
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As we head towards the third anniversary of the Covid pandemic, tourism is going to be the key to economic recovery for Australia’s major cities.
Melbourne has always done major events well, thanks to the DNA gifted us by the late Ron Walker and Jeff Kennett.
Starting with stage musicals – think Cats and Phantom of the Opera – to pinching the Grand Prix off Adelaide and turning the Spring Racing Carnival into an international drawcard, we were number one on the tourism radar in Australia.
Not any more.
Melbourne has fallen way behind destinations like Adelaide with its laid back, clean CBD and vibrant food and wine scene.
I’m there this weekend for the V8 Supercars event that sweeps along the eastern edge of the city on the old Formula 1 track.
Next weekend, the gorgeous Adelaide Oval will play host to the second Cricket Test against the West Indies — a day and night Pink ball match on the city’s fringe.
Next year in sport, the Tour Down Under cycling event runs in January, the all new Adelaide Festival of AFL Football is played – all 18 teams in one location over four days – and in April the rebel golf tour LIV plays in Adelaide; its first and only tournament in Australia.
Add to that the Adelaide Fringe Festival, the Adelaide Comedy Festival and WOMADelaide, the festival of music, arts and dance over four days.
Melbourne, it seems, is standing still.
Now that the state election has been won by Labor for the third time running it’s time to start thinking again about our image as a destination for local and international tourists.
Let me be very clear here: we are starting from a very long way back compared with other Australian destinations. Not just Adelaide but Hobart, Brisbane and far north Queensland as well.
Forget major events for a moment and remember when Melbourne was a shopping trip destination as well for our interstate visitors. Chapel St, South Yarra or Toorak Road and even Brunswick Street.
The shopping end of Chapel St now resembles a retail ghost town.
The “to let” signs outnumber neon signs.
Shopping in Melbourne now means – and I’m largely ruling out the CBD here – the Chadstone mega mall.
Melbourne’s CBD itself has little appeal for Victorians who know how dirty, graffiti-ridden and near empty it is, and interstate visitors who have visited don’t come back, spreading the bad news around the country.
We have a city council that’s been hijacked by a left leaning, woke green ideology obsessed with bike lanes and street art and laneway graffiti.
Homelessness is rampant and the shadow of another drug injecting room hangs over Flinders St.
The business community of Melbourne are so disillusioned they have basically given up complaining. They know nobody listens.
I think the state election campaign that’s been run and won — with all the nastiness that went with it — should give us the perfect opportunity to reset and go again.
The problem is a lack of leadership, with the state government now basically a one man Dan show. You need to ask: where are the fresh ideas, the passion and the vision to make Melbourne great again?
The stage musical attractions designed to drag tourists to town doesn’t work any more because the big shows like Hamilton have already been in the other capital cities.
Melbourne needs a properly designed marketing campaign if it wants to compete with the other states. We are becoming irrelevant to interstate visitors let alone foreign tourists.
If you want proof, it’s in the form of the annual list season, with various global tour related companies publishing surveys about desired destinations.
Credit card company American Express published its desired destination list this week with only one Australian city featuring — Sydney. It shared the honours with places like Copenhagen and Istanbul.
Melbourne didn’t rate a mention.
Our city was mentioned in one list — not by American Express but an obscure British travel insurance company called William Russell.
Melbourne was listed as one of the world’s – wait for it - friendliest cities and our top attraction according to this mob was the Queen Victoria Market.
Can you imagine flying to the other side of the world to visit a friendly city with a market? Not much competition there!
It’s not all negative, by any means.
Melbourne still dominates the nation with the only two truly international events — the Australian Open and the Grand Prix — but my point is, what’s waiting for those visitors when they get here isn’t good enough.
A refreshed state government needs to wake up to this urgent problem. For a moment put aside all the attention being paid to expensive, late and over budget mega construction projects and have a walk around the city you control.
It won’t be pretty what you see.
As I have said before the state government needs to take back control of the CBD, the Hoddle Grid and take it off the incompetent Melbourne City Council and revitalise the city.
To borrow line a line from Donald Trump, you need to make Melbourne great again before we lose forever what we once had.
LIKES
The classy farewell for my friend Carrie Bickmore leaving The Project Wednesday night.
The end to a bitter and long state election campaign.
Lack of success from the so-called TEAL Independents in Victoria’s election.
Hotels allowed to open for that early morning Socceroos victory over Denmark.
DISLIKES
Overly zealous dress codes applied by some hospitality venues banning people dressed in active wear – seriously.
Age catching up with the great Jimmy Barnes – in for hip and back surgery.
Beer prices heading north after floods affect barley crops.
Australia losing one of its last WW11 heroes Ernie Walker from the famous Rats of Tobruk.
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