Mt Wellington cable car plans ‘problematic’, tourism chief Luke Martin says
From Mona and Dark Mofo to short stay accommodation, the Mac Point stadium and steering a state through a pandemic — outgoing tourism boss Luke Martin talks about his highs, lows and some regrets >>
Tasmania
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He was only 27 when Luke Martin landed the job he had always wanted.
Growing up and working in the family’s motel business in the 1990s and 2000s there was much negativity about Tasmania and “tourism was this shining light during that difficult period”.
Mr Martin worked for late premier Jim Bacon, who he says championed tourism in a way not seen before.
He saw being head of the Tourism Industry Council Tasmania, a job he will relinquish on June 30, as “incredibly politically powerful”.
“It’s like the Ferrari of political capital but can you drive it effectively to get good outcomes? That’s been a challenge over the last 12 years.
“Simon (Currant then TICT chair) took a punt on employing me, but he absolutely invested in me and knew where he wanted tourism to get to.
“We were an odd-couple tag team, the elder statesman and this young upstart.”
He is fulsome in his praise of former Liberal premiers Will Hodgman for passionately supporting tourism and Peter Gutwein for his Covid response.
“During Covid, Peter was hands-on and responsive in extraordinary circumstances in the most amazing way with grants and vouchers and positive messaging.
“He saved businesses and probably saved lives too.”
Reflecting on the highs and lows, he is pleased that airline capacity has grown and funding for parks increased.
“We forget now there was a period there when you couldn’t get a flight to Hobart over summer because capacity was at absolute bursting point.
“To its credit, the government worked really strategically on air access development.”
Mr Martin is proud of investment in national parks.
“Cradle Mountain has gone from a pretty embarrassing state with a tin shed visitor centre and an ugly carpark on Dove Lake to now being absolutely world-class in terms of the facilities.
“No one is saying now that funding for parks is a luxury for government. People see it as an economic necessity.”
He is worried about ongoing environmental fights over commercial development in parks.
“If you talk about regrets, the further fragmenting of the divide with the conservation movement is something that troubles me, it always has.
“No one wants to see inappropriate development in protected areas.
“If you are developing on public lands, and creating tourism, it should be extremely high quality and highly regulated.”
On the vexed question of Airbnb he says it’s hard to find anywhere in the world that has resolved the problems it has created in terms of housing.
“We never supported the deregulation.
“What Hobart council is trying to do makes some sense, but it’s such a blunt response, because in putting a ban on any further licences, it immediately puts a premium on the existing licences.
“The big issue we’ve got is workers’ accommodation in regional areas and we need to find a solution that’s going to be tolerable and practical.”
Mr Martin credits Dark Mofo for repositioning Tasmania as a winter destination along with the Festival of Voices and AFL football.
“It has been an extraordinary success and I don’t think we should be afraid of backing it by investing in it,” he said of Dark Mofo.
“It is changing perceptions of Tasmania as a winter destination, it’s great.”
He credits former premier Lara Giddings for backing Dark Mofo and commends Tasmanians for embracing it.
“All the debates, butchered cows, inverted crosses, welcome to hell, Tasmanians accepted that and, to me, that’s part of its success.
“We’ve given confidence to Leigh (Carmichael) and his team to create something that pushes everyone’s boundaries, including our own.”
Mona, he said, had led tourists to prioritise visiting Tasmania over other places and keep coming back.
“Particularly during Covid, because of Mona, people kept coming back and spending more in good restaurants and the finer hotels here.
“Everyone’s talking about what it represents, the quality of the exhibitions. We’ve got something truly world-class.”
Another regret for Mr Martin is that the state doesn’t have a “gold-plated international standard” tourism and hospitality training program.
“We need to provide young Tasmanians with an absolute world-class entry into the industry so they can work all over the world if they want, but ultimately settle here and support our industry.”
As he prepares to take on his next job as CEO of Salmon Tasmania, Mr Martin surprisingly sees parallels between the two industries.
“It’s like tourism, it’s born out of our sense of wanting to create an economic activity in the state that is based on what’s special about the place, our environment, our regional communities and our sense of innovation, entrepreneurialism.
“The history of the salmon industry is extraordinary, three individuals, basically, who created this industry that’s now supporting regional economies all over the state.”
He wants to convince undecided Tasmanians of its benefits.
“This is an industry that is highly regulated, makes a positive contribution to local communities, and fundamentally supports a hell of a lot of Tasmanians.
“Give me a chance to test some of the rhetoric with the science.”
Mt Wellington cable car plans ‘problematic’
An idea to turn Mt Wellington into a national park has been mooted by the head of Tasmania’s peak tourism body as he declares the proposed cable car “incredibly problematic”.
Luke Martin, who steps down soon as the head of the Tourism Industry Council Tasmania, said the debate about the mountain for the past 10 years had unfortunately been “monopolised by one proposal, or one proponent”.
He said a cable car might still be the answer to access problems.
“It might be the answer, but let’s get an objective, proper, no prejudiced, no protectionism around organisations or commercial interests genuine look at developing a contemporary vision for kunanyi for the next 100 years,” Mr Martin said.
“I like the idea of having a national park 10 minutes from the waterfront. There would be very few destinations on the planet that allow that.
“I think unfortunately, where the cable car’s gone wrong is that we’ve lost sight of what the problem is.”
Mr Martin said he hoped before the government considered the cable car as a Project of State Significance people came together to consider the mountain as “a community asset and visitor attraction”.
“The reality is cable cars have been developed all over the world to deal with getting large numbers of people up to the top of a mountain.
“But again, let’s look at what the options are because the Aboriginal community’s got a really strong vested interest in that site.
“Before rushing down further divisive, challenging debate about the merits of a cable car that is just going further wedge these interests let’s actually see if we can come up with vision and transport will be part of it.
“Let’s test it rather than getting lost in one particular project.”
Mr Martin said the idea for a mountain biking hub and development at the Springs had merit.
“But no one’s progressing anything because we’re just completely besotted and obsessed with this debate about one project.”
He said if access was restricted to buses a “decent” shelter would have to be built on the mountain top.
“You can’t allow cars to go up the mountain forever and a day.
“The cable car might be the best solution but let’s get to that point with a really considered vision for the whole mountain rather than just getting bogged down in that debate because that’s where the politics is.”
The mountain is currently run by the Wellington Park Management Trust.
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