‘Wollongong needs to do more than selling ice-creams to day trippers.’

That was the simple but stark assessment of how our city is performing as a tourist destination from one of the region’s most prominent business leaders.

Speaking to a full meeting of Wollongong City Council (WCC) on Monday, 12 August, Ryan Atchison, owner of the Illawarra Hotel and president of Business Illawarra’s Regional Advisory Council, didn’t mince his words.

"Wollongong is walking when it should be running in this space," he said.

The respectful Mr Atchison didn’t mention the significant three-year time lag from Council first exhibiting its draft Tourism Accommodation review in mid-2021 to 20 May 2024, when Council hosted a Tourist Accommodation Roundtable. As we enter a fourth year of deliberation and consultation, at this Council’s final meeting it signed off on a draft strategy to go on exhibition for community and tourism industry input.

More than three years is a long hiatus for an industry desperately trying to recover from the ravages of COVID to wait.

Worrying trends

The report provides a snapshot of the current tourism accommodation in Wollongong LGA and some worrying trends that are actually seeing our capacity to accommodate visitors going backwards.

The report says Wollongong currently has 74 tourism accommodation outlets offering 1924 rooms, 211 cabins and 269 powered and 122 unpowered caravanning and camping sites, which can cater for more than 5400 guests each night when at full capacity.

In recent years, Council has approved eight additional hotels (701 rooms), however, work has started on only one with 96 rooms. Some of the other sites are now being repurposed for residential accommodation.

"We all know we need housing, housing, housing," Mr Atchison said, "but we also need somewhere for these people to work."

The tourism report says the dire current situation is set to get worse with Council approving the demolition of three existing hotels to be replaced by residential development, meaning a net loss of 84 rooms. These include the budget Normandy and Beach Park Hotels in North Wollongong.

Ageing and at risk

Many of the existing hotels and motels "are ageing and at risk of closure", the report said.

Mr Atchison has pointed out previously that Wollongong lags behind the much smaller Wagga for the number of hotel rooms, while comparable sized centres, the Central Coast and Geelong, have three times as many hotel rooms.

"We can’t compete with other cities," he said.

He called on Council to be more proactive, identifying sites for new hotels, and the type of hotels we need and to target a top-tier hotelier.

"Wollongong needs to do more than selling ice-creams to day trippers," he said.

The stark reality

Cr Dom Figliomeni said the lack of tourism accommodation came into stark reality in 2022 when Wollongong hosted the World UCI Cycling Championships.

"During UCI people were staying in Sydney’s Novotel and the surrounding area because Wollongong didn’t have enough accommodation.

"The main issue is to create reasons why people would want to visit Wollongong," he said.

Deputy Lord Mayor Tania Brown said "we need more hotel rooms, and we need them now".

Potential game changer

She said the creation of a cruise ship terminal at Port Kembla at Port Kembla could be "a game changer" for Wollongong.

"This would drive demand for hotels if Wollongong becomes the start and finish destination for cruises. Sydney will soon be at capacity again," Cr Brown said.

She said Royal Caribbean had told a conference that they would move their entire operation from Sydney to Wollongong "if we had a cruise terminal based here".

"We need to relaunch Cruise Wollongong and this could be the game changer to attract new hotels to Wollongong."

Read more: Last year's Australian Cruise Association annual conference was held in Wollongong, with delegates impressed by the city's attractions, Sensational SUP tour charms cruise industry visitors