Respice, adspice, prospice: Unifying the past present and future of Port Douglas

Port Douglas is not recovering from the Global Recession at the same rate as any other similar travel destination within Australia. It is struggling with a lack of identity - the recession has changed the goal posts, and changed the very nature of tourism in the area.

In the past, Port Douglas experienced a heyday remembered vividly and fondly by many.

Today, whilst it struggles with its identity, more and more lower-spend travellers are making their way to the town to experience what was, once-upon-a-time, not affordable. The new brand of money-conscious, van-driving, bare-footed traveller has the local population talking about the days of old, where travellers were willing to spend up large to be part of their small tropical town with its reputation as the playground of the rich and famous.

The state government, the local councils, business schools, and the individuals of Port Douglas have all thought long and hard about the future of Port Douglas: How to bring the average spend of travellers back to pre-recession rates, how to help the locals and the workers living in the town feel that their slice of heaven is important and valued, and how to ensure that that our new breed of low-spend traveller is not left out of the equation?

How do we create a Port Douglas identity that fits with its past, its present, and is future-proof?

I propose Social Media - specifically, a Facebook page.

The plan is simply to design a page that will appeal to, and gain followers from each of our 3 categories of important people: The travellers and locals of the past, the current population, and the potential traveller, in order to gain knowledge and insight into the Port Douglas of the past, the present and the future.