Mildura Regional Development embraces ‘outback’ pitch

PAINTING Sunraysia as a destination with the “outback on your doorstep” is the vision Mildura Regional Development (MRD) has for tourism in 2020.

Rebranding the region to attract new visitors and boost overnight expenditure is a priority for MRD chief executive Brett Millington, along with Member for Mildura Ali Cupper, who supported the Outback Vic concept put forward at last year’s tourism review.

Mr Millington said working on innovative ways to showcase the region to the broader tourism market was one of his top priorities for the year.

“We’ve been on this journey around our branding over the past 18 months and to attract people to our region from a tourism perspective, we’ve used the term ‘outback at your doorstep’,” he said.

“I agree with the underlying principles around how you’ve got this really great attraction and opportunity for natural environment here, but we also have many other elements.

“What we’ve always done is said our branding is around Mildura as a destination point and that the outback is there also as an experience.”

Ms Cupper said last week she thought a tourist train service would be cost-effective and part of a broader tourism strategy to rebrand the region as Outback Vic, while continuing to lobby for the return of a passenger rail service.

Mr Millington supported the idea and said MRD was placing a focus on transport that is already in place, particularly given the recent announcement of QantasLink launching a Mildura-Sydney route.

“Because there is so much level of investment required to return a passenger rail (service), our focus can’t be on if there was a rail, it needs to be on what is already in place,” he said.

“That outback at your doorstep message where you don’t have to fly to Uluru to get the outback experience, you can fly to Mildura where you’ve got the outback, the food and wine and the river.

“And with the new flights, suddenly there’s another market we can attract and we’re boosting our marketing through the Qantas Spirit (magazine) to be able to leverage off of that.”

Mr Millington said he was also working with Mildura Airport to enhance visitors’ welcome experience.

“There’s one existing TV screen at the moment, but our idea is that there would be a much bigger screen with a welcome to Mildura and Welcome to Country,” he said.

“And then also leveraging off of that to say, ‘Hey, these are the things you can do here’, which is building on from our advertisements we did across summer.”

MRD rolled out a series of television commercials on Prime7 and WIN networks last year to broaden audience reach throughout regional Victoria and New South Wales.

Mr Millington said he was waiting to receive results from the campaign, but did envisage more television advertising this year.

“It’s about showing what differentiates us from everywhere else,” he said.

“From an advertising perspective, we’ve also had TV shows visit so we’ll look at that and think about who we can bring in to raise our profile.”