Tourism and hospitality are key industries and contributors to the City of Albany’s economy, as well as being home to a number of tourism attractors. This project required the preparation of a Local Tourism Planning Strategy (LTPS) to recognise key tourism assets and infrastructure and consider the statutory and strategic framework to support growth and development. The City had recently prepared a Local Planning Strategy (LPS), however a more detailed tourism component was required following its endorsement by WAPC.

element assisted the City with preparing the LTPS through our expertise in destination development, strategic planning, place, design and GIS capability along with the assistance of economic analysis and inputs from a specialist sub-consultant. Consideration was given to the State and Local Planning Frameworks, the broader tourism context, the Great Southern Region, local tourism visitor profile, key attractions and activities and accommodation supply and demand. We addressed key local issues such as short-stay accommodation and design considerations, and identified the role of growth industries such as nature-based tourism, agritourism and heritage tourism.

We developed a comprehensive classification system for tourism precincts, identifying the need for a ‘Tier 1’ and ‘Tier 2’ approach given the different role and function of precincts within the City. The Tier 1 precincts identified key tourism nodes and core growth areas, whilst the Tier 2 precincts played a more supportive role in tourism, where there were other priorities or values that needed greater consideration before further growth and development in the tourism sector. Tourism Sites identified individual strategic sites, with Tourism Connectors as the primary transport connection between precincts which were a focus for tourism development. We also provided GIS Mapping of these features, as well as guidance and a methodology around the future classification for Tourism Precincts, Sites and Connectors to assist in the longevity and strategic nature of the LTPS.  

Following delivery of the draft document, we further assisted the City in preparing a graphic ‘User Guide’ brochure that could be used by other stakeholders and community members to reference the key parts or functions of the LTPS, which was a comprehensive, technical and detailed document.

We led the project with the knowledge that it was filling a gap in the current LPS, and therefore, needed to address concerns from the WAPC. We also took into consideration the strategic tourism opportunities for the City within its current statutory framework, with the knowledge that this framework would be updated following the project to align with the Model Scheme Text, but also reflect the LPS. This resulted in a thorough analysis of the existing planning framework and a collaborative review with the City to help guide what their future planning framework was likely to incorporate, to ensure our recommendations would be in their most useful format. The LTPS itself took the same format as the recently endorsed LPS to enable the City to easily modify their LPS.

The Local Tourism Planning Strategy allowed the City to progress the required updates to their LPS, as well as understand the key strategic tourism goals for the City, that could be easily incorporated into the statutory framework as this is progressed in future.

• Online key stakeholder engagement
• Analysis of tourism trends  
• Desktop review of previous studies
• Detailed analysis of the existing tourism planning framework
• Identification of strategic tourism precincts, sites and connectors
• GIS Mapping of the LTPS and analysis
• Draft Local Tourism Planning Strategy aligned with State guidelines