EASTER is traditionally the busiest time of the year as tourists flock to our region to enjoy our beautiful autumn weather and a plethora of events and activities.
COVID-19 made 2020 a wipeout for our tourist operators and while many events returned this Easter, others like the Mildura 100 ski race were again cancelled.
There is no doubt our tourism sector was one of the hardest hit by COVID-19 and its road to recovery is going to be a long one.
This week there were two significant announcements which will have a significant impact for our tourism industry – and economy more broadly.
The Victorian Government announced it was investing $850,000 to Mildura Airport to help support its recovery.
The airport suffered a 95 per cent drop in revenue last year as passenger numbers plummeted from 20,000 to only 500 per month.
Mildura Airport is one of the biggest and busiest rural airports in the country and is a vital connection cog for both business travellers and tourists.
The investment will help boost the airport’s cash reserves, which is important given airlines are still running smaller seat capacities and the flight schedule remains 85 per cent of pre-COVID-19 levels.
The Victorian Government’s investment for the airport was complemented by $885,000 funding from the Federal Government to go towards security operations.
In addition to the airport funding, the Victorian Government also announced $290,000 for the Murray Regional Tourism board to support campaigns to attract more domestic tourists to our region.
In the last sitting of Victorian Parliament, I called on the Government to release the findings and recommendations from the Regional Tourism Review.
During the review process in 2019, I pitched the Outback Vic tourism brand on behalf of our region. Being able to capitalise on the unique imagery of the outback — in conjunction with the Murray River — we could attract even more visitors to the Mallee and north-west.
It was pleasing to see our governments acknowledge the needs of our tourism operators, and economy, with the funding announcements this week, but we know more is needed to recover from the impacts of 2020.
