Satisfy tourists’ appetites

A family visiting from Perth traversed the corners of Geraldton looking for somewhere to have dinner. Stop after stop for Chinese, Thai, Italian was met with a closed sign. They ended up settling for fast-food pizza. That same family had lunch at one of Geraldton’s pubs — one of the few that were open — and had to wait an hour for their food to arrive because the venue was packed to capacity. I, too, was looking at booking in for dinner somewhere and gave up after my top three or four choices were all closed — one won’t be reopening until January 13, after a three-week break. These are all examples that occurred in Geraldton over the Christmas and new year period. I am not taking a cheap and unwarranted dig at Geraldton by writing this column. But it can be embarrassing to welcome visitors to our city and leave them with so few options to have a meal. Yes, they still have some choice, but not everyone is after the typically Geraldton experience of a windswept meal of fish and chips on the beach or a fast-food run during their holidays. Sometimes they want to try the cream of the town’s hospitality — to be wined and dined. And we’re coming into our peak tourism period. Only a couple of weeks ago, The Geraldton Guardian ran a front-page story about many of the hotels being close to capacity and bracing for a bumper January. And this is what we serve them up? Welcome to Gero, good luck finding somewhere decent for dinner. I love this city and want it to succeed. There’s been a lot of talk lately about Geraldton’s evolving tourism reputation. But we need to capitalise on that talk — tourists want the whole experience: the sights and the service. We should leave them with a well-rounded impression of Geraldton, not the thought “Gero was good, but ... ” Offering anything less is only a disservice to them and Geraldton as a whole. And don’t get me started on all the empty shops you find walking down our main strip at 2pm on a Saturday during summer. That deserves its own column. And yes, I know many of the restaurants, pubs and other food outlets are small family-run businesses who need a holiday themselves and I’m all about striking a work-life balance. But surely during our busiest tourism season, there’s a solution besides all or nothing. And this isn’t just aimed at Geraldton. A colleague took some visiting friends from the east to one of the Mid West’s top tourism gems — Kalbarri — earlier this week and they struggled to find anywhere to have lunch, except the pub. And I wonder about all the casual hospitality staff who have had to forego two or three weeks pay. If they had the choice, I reckon they would have loved to work during this period and rake in some of those penalty rates. Now, I’m not saying Geraldton has been in lockdown ... there have been places to grab lunch, a coffee, an evening drink. But think of any major tourism city in regional Australia and I bet you people are spoiled for choice for breakfast, lunch and dinner — especially during peak season. As many of our readers will know, The Guardian has been championing our burgeoning brekky and brunch scene with our weekly Smashed Gero review series, which is still going strong into its third month. It saddens me that if we did the same for the dinner restaurant scene, that series would be over in a month or less. If this city and region is serious about boosting its tourism potential and wading into deeper waters, to put it bluntly we need to up our service game, or be happy to stay in the shallows. I say choose the former.