By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
An amalgamation of two tourism bodies into a single mega authority covering Geelong to the South Australia border has been delayed up to a year.
But the first new marketing campaign for the combined Geelong and south-west Victoria region has been awarded despite unresolved funding issues.
Geelong’s council agreed this week to extend its financial backing of Geelong Otway Tourism (GOT) until 30 June next year.
A report to council said an Interim Great Ocean Road Tourism Board should have begun on 1 July but was still unfinalised.
Council agreed to the new structure in March on condition that Tourism Victoria increased its funding.
Under the agreement all tourism staff, funding and facilities would be transferred to the new authority, called South West Victoria Regional Tourism Pty Ltd.
The report said Tourism Victoria agreed to increase its funding from $345,000 to $500,000 a year for the next three years.
Geelong’s council contributes $926,552 a year to GOT.
The municipal chiefs of the new tourism region had yet to establish “an agreeable funding model”, the report said.
GOT had prepared a $1.3 million tourism action plan but “structural issues” were still “unresolved”.
Public relations agency Icon has won the contract to market the new Great Ocean Road region.
