Bruny Island landing fee ‘just plain silly’, says tourism boss Luke Martin

THE tourism industry has slammed the idea of charging visitors a landing fee on Bruny Island.

The push for a landing fee on Bruny Island, which is accessible only by ferry, has been described as “silly” by Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania chief Luke Martin.

THE tourism industry has slammed the idea of charging visitors a landing fee on Bruny Island.

Rapid growth in visitor numbers last summer prompted the Bruny Island Community Group Association to call for a levy to cover the costs of improving roads, toilet facilities and rubbish disposal.

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Kingborough Council will consider a motion on Monday to impose a landing fee on visitors to raise funds to improve infrastructure.

Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania CEO Luke Martin said the idea had been mooted before “and it’s plain silly”.

Mr Martin said visitors to Bruny Island already paid more than locals for the ferry and spent money on the island.

He said smaller councils like Kentish and the West Coast with larger areas than Bruny didn’t ask tourists to pay a levy to drive to Strahan and Cradle Mountain.

“The visitor growth to Bruny Island has generated investment, created employment and got more people living on the island which has increased property values and in turn, grown the rate base of the council,” Mr Martin said.

In February, Kingborough Mayor Steve Wass told the Mercury the council first supported a levy five years ago and that support remained.

“We’re very aware of the infrastructure that’s needed,” he said.

Kingborough Councillor Dean Winter said the tourism industry and the State Government continued to spruik for more visitors but infrastructure costs were being pushed back on local government.

Cr Winter said small councils had limited resources to deal with the infrastructure required to cope with the tourism boom..

“Kingborough Council could divert it’s entire capital works program to Bruny for 12 months and still have more to do,” he said.

Bruny Island drew 110,000 visitors last year, almost 30 per cent up on 2014.