Recently I used the service to Melbourne to connect to a flight to Hobart to visit my daughter and grandchildren.  On my return I flew into Melbourne around midday on Sunday, April 22, and was still upstairs in the terminal building when I received a text message from Rex telling me the flight to Merimbula leaving at 3pm had been cancelled.

I was given a number to call for further information. I called that number and was put on hold for a total of nearly an hour before I gave up and went downstairs to talk to someone at the check-in counter.  After waiting in a queue for what seemed a considerable amount of time I was told that the only thing that I could be offered was a flight to Merimbula on Tuesday. The attendant apologised but could offer nothing more except to advise me to go upstairs to the Tourist Information Centre to find any other way I could get to Merimbula. When I asked why the flight was cancelled he said four Rex flights had been cancelled that day with staffing problems.

Rex may have found themselves in a tricky situation, but I find this response was totally unsatisfactory.  The afternoon flight on a Sunday would obviously be patronised by mostly Merimbula people going home. There was one surgeon who was desperately trying to get on a flight to Canberra and then get down to Bega as he was due to operate at Bega hospital on Monday morning.

I was not offered accommodation in Melbourne and I was not given any assurance that I would even get my fare back let alone be refunded for the cost of flying to Canberra at a highly inflated rate and then having my partner drive to Canberra to get me home.

I am so disappointed that Rex could be so unprofessional and uncaring in their attitude to their customers.  Is this because there is no opposition and we are a captive market without any options?

The Bega Valley Shire Residents and Ratepayers Association believes one of the main reasons  Sapphire Coast Tourism has lost so much standing over its stewardship of the shire’s tourism sector is its readiness to exaggerate its own importance (MNW, 18/4). SCT chairman Bruce Lever was quoted in your report as claiming “half the shire's economy is tourism related”, with “almost 5000 people directly or indirectly reliant on the sector for their jobs”. Meanwhile the latest statistics published on council's website indicate that the tourism and hospitality sector accounts for only $268million or 9.2% of the shire's total output/sales, while it employs only 1454 people (1222 FTEs).

In recent years the BVSRRA has been critical of both SCT and council for its persistent failure to put in place visible measures of performance as an essential prerequisite to justify the investment being made by ratepayers in the sector. Indeed, by its own admission, the only performance objective that the sector has ever pursued is an increase in the number of overnight stays. By that measure alone, the BVSRRA contends that both SCT and council have failed, with the number of overnight stays declining by 7.5% since 2008/09, while employment (FTEs) has declined by 17% and the value of output/sales by 4.5% over the same period.

While the BVSRRA believes that SCT has acted with the very best of intentions, the fact remains it has not delivered an adequate return on the more than $3m invested in its activities by ratepayers. That said, accountability for that outcome must rest squarely on the shoulders of council and it will continue to do so until a genuine, performance-based model is put in place to guide the future development of the sector.