By NOEL MURPHY
Geelong Mayor Darryn Lyons continues his lobbying of the State Government to fund a new Yarra Street pier and convention centre as the spectacular Seabourn Sojourn sits offshore in Corio Bay this morning.
“Today we have another cruise ship anchored in the bay!” he posted to twitter today.
Cr Lyons told the Independent tourism was “massively important as manufacturing falls out of the Geelong economy”.
“Geelong has to reinvent itself. It’s absolutely on the precipice of change and governments need to understand that,” he said.
Cr Lyons said the State Government was pouring $326 million into the National Tennis Centre in Melbourne which he didn’t think would deliver “enough bang for the bucks”.
“It’s only open two weeks a year, it’s already magnificent, why not hold off for two or three years?” he said.
“Here in Geelong, a convention centre could generate 650 jobs, the pier would get seven to 10 cruise ships a year which would probably end up at 20.
“Politicians aren’t looking at the boom industries around the world at the moment and cruises are a boom industry.
“People are fed up with Miami and the Caribbean, this could be a new San Francisco wharf, bring in immigration services, the navy can stop off, provisioning would be enormous for the local economy.
“Geelong would become the gateway to the Great Ocean Road, one of the wonders of the world.”
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