MILDURA has missed out on an “ideal” opportunity to revitalise its flagging tourism industry under the Federal Government’s discounted airline ticket scheme.
More than a dozen regional tourism destinations were this week selected to take part in the promotion.
About 800,000 government-subsidised tickets were to be offered during the scheme’s duration, which includes the Easter and winter school holidays.
Mildura was not included in the initial list of destinations, which included the Gold Coast, Cairns, Whitsundays and Mackay, Sunshine Coast, Lasseter and Alice Springs, Launceston, Devonport and Burnie, Broome, Avalon, Merimbula and Kangaroo Island.
Return flights to the chosen locations will receive a 50 per cent discount between April 1 and July 31.
Mildura Regional Development chief executive Brett Millington said the Mildura region would have been ideally positioned to make best use of the discount airfares.
“Our airport has been absolutely decimated by COVID in terms of the number of flights that come in and the cost of actually maintaining that service with very little support from the state or federal governments,” Mr Millington said.
“They have talked about keeping planes in the air, but if you don’t have places for them to land then that’s also a bit of a challenge.
“Certainly it’s something that we’re disappointed with, but ultimately what we would prefer is that they have another round and we are included.”
Mr Millington said the tourism stimulus would have given the region a much needed boost during an “ideal” time of year.
“We had done a lot of work to try to bring people here over the Labour Day long weekend and make them aware of what we have to offer and the weekend was a very successful opportunity for tourists in our region,” he said.
“In Mildura you couldn’t get a room on Saturday night, so there are those positive signs, but in that period — from April to July which the government is targeting — that would have been an ideal time for us to be able to draw tourists to our region.”
He said the tourism body would continue to work on attracting both new and return visitors to the region.
“We’ll keep working on the longer term in regard to product development and making our region attractive and visible so people do see us as a destination,” he said.
International overnight visitors accounted for a $34 million spend in the Mildura municipality in the year ending September 2020, or 12 per cent of the total visitor spend.
International visitor numbers dropped 73 per cent in the year ending September 2020, while domestic overnight travel spend also dropped by more than 45 per cent.
Mildura Mayor Jason Modica said that while he was disappointed that the region had missed out on the tourism stimulus, he understood the difficulty in selection the successful regions.
“Everybody across the federation needs to get a little bit of love, but hopefully there will be more into the future,” Cr Modica said.
“Any investment that encourages and supports the regional centres, particularly here in Mildura, is welcome, but we also recognise that it’s an initial stage in an investment package.
“To support regional airlines and airports is essential for economic and social connections, so while we’re disappointed, we also recognise the difficulty of the decision.
“We can also help ourselves by putting on good events and be very careful and aware about how we sell ourselves to the broader Victoria and country because it always has been a wonderful tourist destination here.”
Member for Mallee Anne Webster said she, too, was disappointed that Mildura was not part of the program.
“Of course I am, I come from here … that goes without saying,” Dr Webster said.
“I understand that this particular initial rollout is specifically about international destinations that have obviously been hit very, very hard,” she said.
“We know that we’ve been hit hard as well, and that’s why we want our borders to remain open … so that people will at least travel around Australia.”
