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Airlie Main Street SurveySummary Report 2019BackgroundThe Main Street of Airlie Beach is the Whitsunday Region’s tourist hub, attracting thousands of visitors a year with its cafes, restaurants, shops, amenities and, of course, transportation connections and access to trips on the water.Long known as ‘The Gateway’ to the Whitsunday Islands, Airlie Beach has, in recent years, been absorbed too much into the overall Whitsundays brand and needs to stand out as a destination in its own right.Visitors split into all kinds of demographics – from families with young children and teenagers, to couples with no children, empty nesters, grey nomads and backpackers, from Australia and overseas.Airlie Beach needs to be welcoming and appealing to all these market segments, while, at the same, time, having its own unique personality that people will be drawn to.We also need to get locals ‘back into town’ to spend their hard earned dollars in shops and restaurants, and keep the local economy moving.Let the people speak!The Whitsunday Coast Chamber of Commerce is the region’s largest, non-tourism specific organisation and represents close to 100 businesses and NFP organisations.Not surprisingly, there is strong representation from Main Street traders within the Chamber.In an effort to bring together as many stakeholders as possible in one place, the Whitsunday Coast Chamber of Commerce, organised a Public Forum Held in conjunction with Tourism Whitsundays and Whitsunday regional council, the forum, on Tuesday, July 16, 2019, was a huge success, with over a hundred people attending and lively discussion. Many great ideas came out of the forum, setting the foundations for a Main Street Strategy.In order that this strategy meets the needs and expectations of the local people, an extensive survey was carried out over many weeks, incorporating all the ideas and suggestions voiced at the forum.The result was a very respectable 184 responses, with some fantastic ideas coming out of the open questions. Following is a summary of the results (to be read in conjunction with the slides attached).Wow factorQ1 was an unprompted, open question, allowing people to say, in their own words, what their top one or two suggestions would be to bring the ‘wow’ factor back to the Airlie Beach Main Street.As such, a significant weighting should be given to this question, as it is coming from a place of sincerity and honesty and is totally unprompted (meaning it’s top-of-mind for respondents).The responses to Q.1 split into seven main headings – streetscape, parking, traffic flow, entertainment, lighting, art/history and upgrades/tidy-up – a summary of responses follows.NB. The original, un-edited responses are attached as an appendix at the end of this report.StreetscapeThe overwhelming response here, repeated by dozens of people, was that they would like more landscaping, more trees, more greenery, more colour (plantings), more shade (trees and/or shop awnings).The cleanliness of the footpaths was also mentioned by some people. More lighting at night was also mentioned under this question and there was also support for pedestrianising the Main Street (see ‘traffic flow’ question for more on that).Some ideas for adding the ‘wow’ factor, coming out of this question, included an outdoor aquarium, water features, art installations, street sculptures, murals and more water stations (to fill up your water bottle!).SignageOne issue that did not come up unprompted in Q1, but which was spoken about quite extensively at the Public Forum, was directional signage in town.Because it did appear to be an important issue at the forum, it was addressed in Q.7 of the survey.The options were: Large signs directing visitors to the lagoon, beach, boardwalk etc. (first choice overall in the survey), interactive digital map of the town located centrally (second choice), an Airlie Beach digital notice board somewhere central - what's on today, this week etc. (third), use of digital sign at town entry, so it can be changed for events (fourth) and permanent ambassadors in the Main Street to create atmosphere and experience (fifth choice overall).ParkingNot surprisingly, many survey respondents asked for more parking spaces, more free parking (some said it should be free all the time!) and longer time limits, in Q.1 (‘wow’ factor).Because it is such an important issue, parking was covered in more detail in Questions 17 – 22 of the survey. Following is a summary of the responses to those questions.Free parking in the Main Street – the overwhelming choice for the length of time there should be free parking in the Main Street was two hours, with 38.42 per cent of respondents choosing this option (no other option scored more than 20 percent of the response). All-day free parking was second, chosen by 19.21 per cent of respondents. Free parking in council carparks – two hours and all-day parking were again the top two choices, however, this time they were switched, with 34.86 per cent of respondents choosing all-day free parking and 28.57 per cent of respondents choosing two-hour free parking in council carparks.In response to the question, should a heavily discounted yearly parking permit be available, the response was overwhelmingly yes, for both residents and ratepayers (69.66 per cent of respondents). A permit for ratepayers only scored 19.66 per cent and for residents only, 10.67 per cent. Somewhat unsurprisingly, when asked if they thought parking limits should be more stringently enforced, 70.95 per cent of respondents said no! However, being the nice folk we are, 89.71 per cent of respondents would support giving people 30-minutes ‘grace’ before the infringement is issued. Interestingly, a whopping 67.98 of respondents agreed with the idea of having a multi-storey car park on the vacant site behind Woolworths as a long-term parking solution.Traffic flowThere was quite a lot of unprompted support for a one-way system through town in the responses to Q.1.This is supported by Q.16, which specifically asks respondents ‘…would you support making the Main Street one-way (with angle parking)?’. The response was 60 per cent YES and 40 per cent NO.This question also elicited responses suggesting pedestrianising the whole street, pedestrianising just The Esplanade and opening up the ‘bottom end’ of town, so it is one, long street again.Q.14 meanwhile, asked respondents which of two alternative suggestions for slowing the traffic through town was their preference. The two options were: Make the entire Main Street a shared pedestrian and vehicle zone using traffic-calming devices and signage (46.79 per cent preferred this option) and Make the Esplanade a 10km zone, encouraging through-traffic to go around Waterson Way (53.21 per cent).This is clearly a split issue, and a fairly emotive issue judging by some of the comments in the open questions, and needs to be looked at further.Pedestrian crossings were also tackled, in Q.15, and again, responses were split evenly, with 50.58 per cent of respondents preferring the option of creating proper crossings, where pedestrians have right of way, and 49.42 per cent of respondents preferring the option of maintaining current crossings (vehicles have right-of-way) but improve signage and make it multi-lingual.EntertainmentWhitsundays people are an imaginative lot! Suggestions for adding the ‘wow’ factor to the Airlie Main Street, under this heading, included a roller skating rink, bowling alley, outdoor cinema, mini-golf, gondola ride, zip lines, mountain biking trails (in the hills) and a wave pool!Night markets, buskers, live music, an “eat street” and look-outs (‘user-pays’ fixed binoculars) all found support, as well as respondents wanting more events in town.The latter point is backed up by responses to Q.4 – ‘Would you like to see events in Airlie Beach increase from eight significant events to 12?’.The response was overwhelmingly in favour of increasing to 12 events (86 per cent of respondents answered yes).Q.5. asked respondents what “significant” events they would like to see take place, for example Film Festival and Food and Wine Festival.Some kind of food/wine/beer festival was a resounding first place, and a fish and seafood festival was also mentioned by about 10 people, accompanied by a fishing festival in a couple of instances.A Film Festival was in second place by a country mile, followed by fruit/local produce festivals, which could potentially be combined with a Food and Wine Festival. Music festivals, talent shows and comedy festivals also scored well.Smaller scale events also proved popular, with family, entertainment and adventure types of events eliciting the highest scores, when respondents were asked to pick two kinds of events they thought would attract the most people.Sporting events fared slightly worse, and there did not seem to be a lot of support for historical, indigenous or hobbyist events in the Airlie Beach Main Street precinct (see Q.6.)Still on the topic of entertainment, the idea of night markets, buskers and live music all found support in the responses to Q.3, which asked respondents which of six ideas put forward at the Public Forum they would like to see implemented to increase the street’s ambience (rank in order of preference).Fairy lights in the Main Street came “first” followed by live entertainment in the soundshell in second place and regular night markets, including food stalls, in third, with buskers a close fourth.A history trail and more day markets received less support, however, it must be remembered that they were significant enough to be included in the survey in the first place, so should not be totally discounted (and they elicited support in this question, with over 30 per cent of people putting a history trail in their top 3).LightingThe support for lighting in Q.1 - what one or two things would bring the ‘wow’ factor back to the Airlie Beach Main Street - was so extensive, it warrants a heading of its own! Around 30 respondents included lights of some description in their top one or two things to bring the ‘wow’ factor back.It was mostly fairy lights but pavement lights and also lights shining into trees found support. This would suggest perhaps a review of all kinds of lights, for costings, feasibility etc.Art/historySculptures, indigenous artworks and water features all gained support for adding a ‘wow’ factor in the category of art/history, with street art and murals gaining quite a lot of support.Historical photos of the Main Street and a museum were also mentioned, as well as some way of celebrating the town’s sailing culture.Upgrades/tidy-upOne of the surprising things that came out of the ‘wow’ factor question was how many people felt the town needed a tidy-up or upgrade, especially the fronts of buildings, resorts, shops etc.“Upgrades of facades and shop frontages”, “fix up the old buildings” and “general tidy-up” were all mentioned.Ideas to combat this included council incentives for owners/landlords, competitions and lowering rents to help businesses. Empty blocks and empty shops were cited as an issue, adding to the untidiness.Beaches Backpackers, in particular, came under fire, with many people saying its frontage lets the town down.Questions 8 and 9 of the Main Street survey directly addressed some of these issues and, interestingly, a whopping 71 per cent of respondents said, yes, they would be prepared to take part in a working bee to help lift the look of the town (Q.8).The idea of a ‘Dress up Your shop or Business’ Award garnered less support, however – it was actually split down the middle, with 50.62 percent of respondents saying yes, they would enter such an awards scheme, and 49.38 per cent saying no, they would not enter (Q.9).Outdoor diningOne unprompted suggestion that came up quite a lot in the ‘wow’ factor question (Q.1) was the idea of outdoor dining.This idea was put to the test in Q.10, where an overwhelming majority of respondents (77.84 per cent) said, when asked, that they would like to see more footpath dining in Airlie Beach. A pretty unequivocal vote for more outdoor dining!QuirkinessAirlie Beach as always been known for being a bit quirky, so the survey asked respondents what quirky idea or decoration/theme suggestion they would like to see in the Main Street, to enhance the visitor experience.The responses were fascinating and ran to five pages, with most answers different to the next one.Because of this, it is recommended that people read the responses to this question for themselves.Cruise shipsCruise ship visitation come up at the Public Forum, as something that affects the Main Street.Questions relating to cruise ships were therefore included in the survey, with 63.69 per cent of respondents saying yes, they would be interested in participating in a co-ordinated strategy to make the most of cruise ship visitors.However, when asked if they would be prepared to financially contribute to a monthly prize to encourage cruise ship visitors to spend a certain amount in store, 69.62 per cent of respondents said no and only half (49.67 per cent) would support the idea of their staff wearing cruise ship ambassador shirts on cruise ship days. ................
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