Newport Beach, Australia? Town says no thanks to a name change
Fixing a city’s marketing shortfalls could be as easy as renaming it “Newport Beach.”
At least that’s what one former mayoral candidate suggested that his Australian city do to shake off high unemployment rates and increase tourism.
“Hervey Bay is a pretty plain name. If we called ourselves Newport Beach, it would make a big difference,” said real estate agent Chris Couper, who lost a 2012 run for mayor of the Fraser Coast region and plans to campaign for a Regional Council seat in 2016.
Couper got the idea after visiting Southern California. But he says Newport Beach isn’t the only option for a new name — he was “just trying to get people here to think outside the square.”
Hervey Bay — pronounced Harvey Bay — is a city of about 63,000 residents on the east coast of Australia in the state of Queensland. It is made up of five fishing villages and is best known as a destination to watch humpback whales during their summer migration.
Changing the name could raise the city’s profile, lure tourists and raise real estate prices in a town that Couper says is plagued by staggering unemployment, high mortgage rates and a dwindling number of international visitors.
“I wasn’t trying to compare Hervey Bay with Newport Beach, that people sit around eating crayfish and driving Mercedeses, but I want to see a name change make a difference,” Couper said in a phone interview. “The way Hervey Bay is being promoted is not good enough for this region.”
A Newport Beach business leader found the idea humorous.
“I can’t say I blame them, but there’s a lot more that goes into having a great city than having a great name,” said Chamber of Commerce President Steven Rosansky. “Maybe we can have a sister city relationship with them, though it might get a little confusing.”
In an online poll by the Fraser Coast Chronicle, which first reported Couper’s suggestion last month, about 84 percent of 430 respondents said the city’s name should not be changed to Newport Beach.
“No one was in favor of the idea,” Fraser Coast Mayor Gerard O’Connell said in an email.
Most people who saw the poll laughed it off, said Kevin Corcoran, a spokesman for the Fraser Coast Regional Council, which governs the town. He said he has never seen a story from Hervey Bay receive a stronger reaction.
Despite the attention that the name-change idea gained, members of the council have had no serious talks about making it a reality.
Couper contends that other Australian cities that have changed their names have benefited from increased international travel.
Hervey Bay was founded in 1770 by Capt. James Cook, who named it in honor of his admiral, Augustus John Hervey. That history, O’Connell said, is part of the town’s heritage and cannot be ignored.
“We’ve worked long and hard to establish the Hervey Bay identity as a destination nationally and internationally,” O’Connell said.