Ballarat has so many splendid museums and attractions for international and interstate visitors, yet appears to fail in attracting the high end of this travel sector. It is good that overnight stays have increased, but could holiday packages be the missing link? We also do need a five star hotel carefully situated in city centre (not on railway land) to provide an excellence of service and do justice to our already beautiful heritage city. We make it too easy for developers to provide second rate. Many regional cities throughout the world have long promoted themselves as an ideal destination for a seven or ten day accommodation base, opportunity for visitors to both enjoy their city sights and the region's attractions on day trips . Ballarat is ideally suited geographically as a holiday base, we have the old gold towns, lakes, the Grampians, spa country, Geelong and coastal towns to name a few destinations, all suited to market as a wonderful choice of daily excursions.