Roger Moroney: A new motel a week...and all paid for

Roger Moroney. Photo / Duncan Brown

Now I'm not very flash when it comes to estimating the cost of things so anything I say, or write for that matter, should be taken with not a grain of salt but a 3kg bag of the stuff.

But I do recognise how much money $53 million is because that's how much it would tally up to after a year if one were to spend $1,019,230 a week.

That's a fair old dollop of dosh and it got me thinking (which is always a plus at my age).

So after finding a chair I sat down and did some sums...after first checking out a real estate site which specialises in the sale of motels and B&Bs and the like.

Places which offer accommodation to people who have decided to temporarily abandon their home for another far away...or as far as the car will manage there and back on a full tank of petrol.

Seems that places which have around 25 to 30 units and rooms and small apartments and things go for around an average of around the $1 million mark...although of course location is a factor.

So taking that million (and maybe adding $19,230 for the addition of a few spa pools for selected rooms) you could build a motel somewhere every week for a whole year.

Fifty-two new motels and around 1500 new rooms to call home whilst away on hols.

Now that sounds like a very good thing to me given this land is experiencing something of a tourism boom which (along with events like the incoming Lions tour) tends to underline the fact that at certain times of the year, and more so during this era of global uneasiness which makes us a very attractive bolt hole, we are a land running short of rooms.

Now while an extra 1500 spread about the popular stop-off points for tourists may only be a drop in the bucket it would make a splash, and would certainly be a start.

And a great start if the Government were to come up with that $53 million funding, because if it could then sell or lease them off it could make a good few bob...and maybe build some more if the tourists keep on coming.

Money well spent, I say, given that recent figures do indeed suggest that tourism is on something of a multi-billion dollar rampage in this land...to the point where the money it generates makes it our top export earner.

Visitor numbers a year?

Well, they're starting to edge very close to our own population numbers.

So wait a minute...if around 3.5 million people come through our gates over the next 12 months we could serve them all with a modest entry "levy" of just $15 then we'd pick up around $53m.

Crikey, that's another 1500 accommodation rooms and it wouldn't have cost us a cent.

All paid for by the people who will ultimately use them.

And the following year and the year after that...and so it goes on.

I reckon I should be the Minister of Finance, although failing that I'd be comfortable with the role of Ambassador for Provincial Home-Brewing, as I daresay after a few assignments (escapades) in that role I could come up with some equally ambitious and "prought throvoking" ideas to make a few bob for this fine land of ours.

Because clearly we have made a fine name for ourselves in terms of tourism.

Most people now know where we are (although there is still the occasional "you folks are just off the coast of Queensland ain't ya?") and of course the cruise ships sail in by the hundreds during the summers.

We are also Middle Earth and that helps.

With the acceleration of global communication, websites, app things, Facebook and other online things which have assisted me in being able to spell "bewilderment" properly, this land is very familiar now with a lot of people, and a lot of them make their holiday plans accordingly.

So what's another way to spend $53m?

How about a "world expo" in one of the most expensive cities on earth.

Which I guess in terms of exporters wanting to highlight their goods is a sound enough idea, but I sort of figured the hard yards had been done...like the sharply focused wine industry and its pushes into global markets...and by technology and food manufacturers.

Do we really need to pump that into an arena which we are already pretty strong in for a place of our size and when the i-world sends our business CVs everywhere anyway?

Yeah it's good to get the word out there...but I figured on that front it was already out there.

Crikey, if lots of people see our stands and want to come here to check us out where will they all stay?

Good thing I can't spell "conundrum".