Bunbury hotel manager defends the council’s draft tourism plan and calls for people to ‘accept the process’

A hotel manager has backed a controversial draft plan from the City of Bunbury. Mantra Lighthouse general manager Matt Isabella vigorously defended the City of Bunbury’s draft tourism plan against criticism it received at an agenda briefing session a fortnight ago and called for people to “accept the process”. He said the council should be “applauded” for collaborating and consulting with local stakeholders when producing the plan. The city’s Tourism Plan 2025-2027 came under fire two weeks ago due to a proposed action to move the Bunbury Visitors Centre to the Koombana Tourism precinct, with critics claiming the move contradicted a previous council decision which ruled out the site. Mr Isabella told the Herald he didn’t have an opinion on the location of the visitors centre, but that he “trusted the process that got to the conclusion”. The hotel manager said he was involved in the working group, which helped create the document along with other key stakeholders. “Rather than council just preparing the tourism plan as normal councils do in their little group, they called upon people within various facets of the community,” Mr Isabella said. “So, you got accommodation, you got the tourism industry and all these other facets to come in on their own time to meet once a month for a period of about six or seven, or eight months. “I’ve never seen this happen before, we should be so proud and the story has never been told about this.” Mr Isabella — who provided information on accommodation with the help of expert consultants — said their job was to provide the council with data to help them form a view on how tourism should move forward in Bunbury. He said despite many people believing there was a hotel shortage in Bunbury, the problem was a lack of serviced accommodation. “We get all these people coming down from the mines, the police force and from the government that need a place like a kitchenette, where they can prepare meals and whatever — a home away from home,” Mr Isabella said. “What’s happening is, because they don’t have a home away from home . . . they’re using our accommodation and accommodation from hotels down the road and because of that, tourists can’t get hotels.” He said the city chief executive Allan Ferris — who he described as “a breath of fresh air” — and mayor Jaysen Miguel were heavily involved in the process of preparing the tourism plan. “Him and Jason are a wonderful combination,” Mr Isabella said. “I’ll tell you what, we’re very lucky to have people like that. “I’ve been to number of these where the mayor takes over, the CEO takes over, and we’re just there for just table dressing — this wasn’t that case. “Everyone had a voice, the data was provided, the data was assessed, and the outcomes of that process should be accepted.” Mr Isabella said he would stand by the final recommendations of the plan because the process “was world class”. “Frankly, if the report concludes that Matthew Isabella has absolutely no sense of humour, I’d be hurt — but I’d still support the findings because the integrity of the process is what counts,” he said.