The City of Bunbury council has given the thumbs up for a $120,000 boost to the CBD promotional strategy.
On Tuesday, October 17, the council voted unanimously to consider short and medium term expenditure for promoting and building upon the CBD’s resources.
City of Bunbury Mayor Gary Brennan said the funds were allocated following the council’s endorsement of a CBD parking plan and changes to current parking arrangements earlier this year.
“When we reviewed our CBD activation we did a community survey and we invited anybody, they didn’t have to be Bunbury residents, to comment on what they enjoyed about the CBD, what they didn’t like, suggestions for improving it etc.,” he said.
“That then led to a focus on parking and part of the focus was that the city council needed to do more in promoting or marketing the CBD activation.”
The newly formed CBD Activation Advisory Group came up with a series of ideas for the allocation of the funds, with the purpose of CBD revitalisation.
The group included representatives from CBD realty, businesses, community members and the Bunbury Geographe Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The CBD Activisation Advisory Group’s ideas included $62,000 for marketing campaigns, $15,000 for summer markets, $10,000 for a mobile-enabled Bunbury website,$15,000 for additional events’ advertising billboards, $8,000 for the Bunbury History Initiative, and $10,000 for introducing CBD building upgrade grants.
The $62,000 set aside for marketing campaigns will include TV advertising strategies for the local area and Perth, aiming to attract people from across WA to Bunbury.
Funding will also be set aside for billboards on Koombana Drive and Bussell Highway.
Mr Brennan said the State Government has allocated $70,000 to the Bunbury Geographe chamber of Commerce and $200,000 to improve signage along Forrest Highway and Bussell Highway.
“It’s certainly an unprecedented amount of money that has been invested this year and I am hoping it will result in more visitors coming into our CBD and with that they will tell their contacts about how good Bunbury is,” he said.
“We know how good it is we just want the rest of the planet to know how good it is as well."
The proposed initiatives were designed to address issues surrounding the CBD’s usage, physical appearance and promotion.
All marketing and promotion will be undertaken in collaboration with Bunbury Geographe Tourism Partnership to ensure its vision for the region is addressed.
Under the PR-4314 Implement City Promotional Strategy, the funds were allocated as part of the 2017/18 City of Bunbury budget.
Additional CBD projects such as a proposed free trade area, small business support service, urban orchard and pop-up events space do not require CBD promotional strategy funding.