By DANE LILLINGSTONE
IN A turbulent couple of weeks for tourism in the Southern Downs, Tracy Vellacott has resigned as the interim general manager of Destination Southern Downs.
This follows a week after complaints from some on the Granite Belt that the new Destination Southern Downs (DSD) board has been neglecting their area.
A letter sent to the Southern Free Times and other local newspapers specifically pointed the finger at Tracy for neglecting the Stanthorpe and Granite Belt region when it snowed in Stanthorpe.
The letter sent by local business owner Lucille Jensen said that the Southern Downs tourism social media pages were poorly guided and that the Granite Belt was being ignored.
“The national media is showing us more attention,” Ms Jensen said.
“One doesn’t start to build a house, start a business until the plans are made and ready to go. Destination Southern Downs had no plans as at 1 July, so why were they allowed to start operating such a significant budget without solid plans in place and marketing for the Granite Belt. It’s a disgrace.”
Former mayor Ron Bellingham praised Tracy’s contributions to the region, but was scathing of DSD and the change in tourism structure by the Southern Downs Regional Council.
“It was during my tenure that we attracted her to the position with Tourism and Events. She has done an absolutely exemplary job together with the people she’s attracted around her. The loss that has come as a result of this council decision, the loss to the community is absolutely immeasurable,” he said.
“Anyone who has any knowledge of tourism within this area and the history of tourism knows that it was a mistake. It was just a silly move. It really was very unintelligent to do what they did.
“It will take us another 10 years to get it back where it was six months ago. It’s not going to work, it just won’t work, it can’t work.
“Unless you can engage with the volunteers and the real people on the ground that do the work, unless you can engage with them and recognise the benefits that local people bring to those entities, it will never work.
“The sooner that the election comes on and the sooner the people of some passion for our community are prepared to put their hand up, and I hope they do, I’d think the sooner the better. It’s irrecoverable, this a blow to that organisation that they can’t recover from, in my view, and will never recover from. It will cost the community a fortune to continue to support them and the damage has been done, and the damage was done by that new board, together with the councillors who voted to put that board in place.
“I’m very, very sad to see the entity that was running so well, which was Tourism and Events, turn into the disaster that it is now, and it’s only taken them two months and already it’s an absolute disaster and the community deserves better than what we are being delivered at the present time.”
Destination Southern Downs released a statement regarding Tracy’s resignation and announced they would immediately be looking for a replacement general manager.
“We would like to congratulate Tracy on her achievements and on behalf of DSD and the region’s tourism industry we wish her the very best with her future endeavours,” DSD Chair Corinne Butler said in the statement.
