Wednesday 23 December

How is the GFC impacting the Douglas Region

There appears to be several obvious answers to the question, 'How does the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) impact on the Douglas region ?   For example People who have lost their job do not plan holidays.  People who have seen their pensions, superannuation and life savings dramatically lose their value, do not plan holidays.  People who have lost their houses do not plan holidays and with bank interest rates set to keep on rising people who may still have their jobs and their houses may be so worried about the future that even they do not plan holidays.  And these are just a few pressures that can be attributed to the global financial crisis.

Now, do I hear you say,'Surely this is all happening in the rest of the world, Australia is fine, isn't it?'.  Well yes, due to some prudent, some may say dilligent, banking and governmental practices before the global collapse, Australia has not been so badly or directly damaged by outside financial influences because we were not a big player in the superpower money markets.

But we cannot kid ourselves here in Australia that the dubious, almost idiotic American and European banking activities that brought their own systems to their knees, have not affected the whole global process of money movement and trade between nations, even if the smaller nations are not dependent on these superpowers.

Whilst we can sit on the sidelines and watch the devastation in America as almost 17% of house owners default on their mortgages and subsequently lose their homes or watch as the smaller, many private UK and European sharedealers lose their portfolios comprised of their lifesavings.  Each of these and many many more tragic stories do not directly affect Australia, but what they do is produce an overwhelming loss of confidence which has a momentum of its own.  It runs rampant through the world economies and generates a huge despondency and therefore the greatest destruction for future global improvement than any specific, individual problem.

With all this global degeneration, can the Douglas Region honestly say they have been shielded from the worst of the global crisis ?

Doug Calvert has been recently elected to represent retailers on the Port Douglas Chamber of Commerce and is very concerned that many of the warning signs are not being heeded.

He says, "We just have to look at the high unemployment levels in the far north. Now that the one off stimulus bonus has dried up the locals and tourists have less confidence resulting in less money being spent at the cash register. The tourist numbers have certainly been down this year and those that have come to our beautiful part of the world to taste paradise have simply looked at cheaper options for both retail, restaurant and accomodation spending. A quick walk around survey of the impact of GFC on retailers and restaurateurs will show the significant drop in sales and net profit on these small businesses over the past 2 years. Its very important that all these businesses look at the best ways to reduce costs and develop a contingency plan for getting through this period".

He is worried that false optimism may be a dangerous delay to good planning and recent comments in the press like “all indications are that 2010 will be the best for years” may produce an attitude of complacency that will ultimately hurt their futures.

Doug says, "From a tourism perspective these positive comments are to be commended. The town really needs to have this level of optimism coming into the slow season.  However, all the indicators I have at the moment seem to point to a really tough year ahead with the reserve bank forecasting further interest rate rises which to date, has maintained a high $AUD, slowing international tourism and encouraging Aussies to travel overseas!"

"On the positive side there will be some increased flights to the region, 5 star resort development, and increased presence of cruise ships - and the Port Douglas Chamber is continuing to work hard to make sure we have as many repeat customers coming back to our beautiful destination".

He summarised by saying "I’m hopeful these positives will assist in reducing the slide backwards for retailers and allow all of them to continue trading through 2010 so we can continue to have a fabulous range of unique shops from the Marina to Macrossan Street as our tourist numbers hopefully return in coming years".

The Tourism bodies are working flat out to promote Port Douglas and the surrounding region throughout the world as the must do destination for 2010 and their reports indicate good early bookings in February and March.  Event management to promote Port Douglas as both a corporate and special interest event venue will generate a sizeable market for 2010.

In fact it is a strange phenomenon that whilst the world is suffering from the resulting idiocies of the US and European lending policies, the niche markets are still thriving.  There's money out there, we just have to tirelessly find how to service the people who want to spend it !