MILDURA’S tourism industry copped a $62 million whack last financial year primarily on the back of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tourism yield to the region fell from a healthy $352 million in 2018-19 to just $290 million in the 12 months to the end of June this year.
The start of the 2020-21 financial year is also expected to show a significant drop in tourism spend as both New South Wales and South Australian borders closed and Melbourne was placed in a “ring of steel”.
Mildura Regional Development chief executive officer Brett Millington said the border closures had excluded 40 per cent of visitors to Mildura from the two states, while the lack of international visitors had also impacted the end result.
Mr Millington said that while the state’s summer bushfires and a previous blistering summer in Sunraysia may have also turned off visitors, the downturn in tourism revenue could “primarily” be attributed to COVID-19.
“That period from March to June was also across our Easter weekend which was a pretty significant component — there’s $10 million for that weekend alone,” Mr Millington said.
“I certainly would expect similar data for the following three months (July-September) and probably even a little bit moreso because that’s when the ring of steel started to come in,” he said.
“The South Australian border went up, so there’s 20 per cent of our market, and then the New South Wales border went up and there’s another 20 per cent and then Victoria went into a ring so we were left with a very small percentage in order to generate that revenue.”
Mr Millington said that despite the significant downturn in tourism-based revenue, he was beginning to sense an air of confidence slowly returning to the region with Melbourne soon to end travel restrictions and an ever-nearing of NSW and South Australia border closures.
“What we hope, like everyone, is that as we transition out of this into a COVID-normal that we are going to see an abundance of people coming in and certainly that was the feeling around the CBD over the weekend when there were people everywhere,” he said.
“Speaking to a number of cafe owners and the like they were seeing some good signs so I sensed there was some confidence around.
“When South Australia came out of lockdown there was this massive visitation from Adelaide out to the Riverland, so people had gone from being in the confined space of the CBD and just trying to get out and into those open spaces.
“There is a confidence that we know people are going to want to travel and people will be looking for the warmest place in the state.”
Mr Millington said a clear roadmap about events of gatherings of more than 100 people would help to plan ahead.
“It’s still going to be a different period for another three to four months at least,” he said.
