By John Onto

How to kill an economy in one easy lesson:

As the Port Douglas economy recovers after a five year beating following the GFC, rise in the Australian dollar, a couple of cyclones, both overdramatised by the media and various other factors, did someone sit down with a mission to return us to "the good old days" of underemployment, bankrupt businesses and general depression?

If they did, they could hardly have come up with a better plan than, "LET'S HAVE SOME ROADWORKS IN THE PEAK OF THE TOURIST SEASON!"  The abiding memory of thousands of tourists who make their way here over the next few weeks will be the inordinate time it takes to get in to and out of town.  For some, their final memory of Port Douglas will be the stress associated with getting out of town to catch their plane home. The good news is that this experience will probably overshadow the appalling weather of the past few weeks.

What we also need to recognise is that these thousands of tourists who experience these frustrations will share their experiences with their friends, people who themselves may have been considering visiting Port.

So - here's a suggestion.

Let's turn this problem into an opportunity.  Allow the stall holders at the Sunday market who will really be penalised by this poor planning, to set up their stalls along the road side so that people can view and purchase their wares as they wait to progress.  Maybe a letter of apology from Council  in each resort bedroom together with a discount pack for various goods and services?    How about some jugglers or acrobats doing their thing along the congested traffic lines?  And I'm sure others will have more and better suggestions to add to this list.

From a longer term perspective, someone, somewhere needs to ensure that this sort of nonsense does not happen again.