Time to think big, Tassie told

An artist's impression of the Mount Wellington Cable Car visitor centre at the summit.

ONE of Hobart's leading businessmen and entrepreneurs Robert Clifford says it is time for Tasmania to shake off its "anti-development" attitude and think bold.

Mr Clifford, chairman of shipbuilding company Incat, says Hobart needs a major new attraction to "rival the Sydney Opera House" if it wants to boost visitor numbers.

He said Tasmania needed to double the annual number of visitors to the state if it wanted to have a viable tourism industry that was capable of supporting struggling regional attractions, including the West Coast Wilderness Railway, set to close on April 30.

And he says Tasmania cannot rely on MONA alone to drive visitor numbers.

"We need to be much bolder and say this is good for Hobart; Tasmania needs this," he said.

"Don't do anything is the cry from most and that's not the way to survive. Standing still, you go backwards."

Mr Clifford's company has built vessels for major cruise companies, ferry operators and military operations around the world, employing a large number of Tasmanians at his Derwent Park shipyards.

Mr Clifford has been revealed as a potential investor in the Mt Wellington Cableway Company.

"Let's not stuff around with an apologetic mountain cable car that is hidden in the gullies. Let's go the whole hog and create an attraction to rival the Sydney Opera House," he said.

"My ideas might get watered down, but the bolder you are going forward, the better chance you have of success."

Mr Clifford called for a cable car development linking the Mt Wellington pinnacle to Hobart's waterfront, with a station at the Macquarie Point railyards site.

"I have in mind a major hotel and entertainment and shopping complex on the railway development site at Macquarie Point, one that has a massive central tower, topped by a revolving restaurant," he said.

"From this tower hundred-passenger capacity cars on a cable will run over the city to a Knocklofty transit station."

Mt Wellington Cableway Company executive director Adrian Bold said more than 1200 people had completed an online survey about the development.

Mr Bold wants 2200 responses -- 1 per cent of Hobart's population.

He said he hoped to have a proposal prepared by the end of the year.

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