A FIVE-YEAR plan for Mildura to capitalise on one of the country’s fastest-growing tourism sectors, can now forge ahead after it was adopted at Thursday night’s council meeting.
The concept of the Mildura RV, Caravan and Camping Strategy, which aims to attract more visitors to the region, lengthen their stay and boost the economy, was first floated in 2020 and includes Mildura becoming an accredited RV friendly town.
However, councillor Mark Eckel said given the timeframes of the strategy, the Mildura economy could miss out on millions of dollars while waiting.
“It’s two years since the consultation process started and now we have to wait another five years until it is implemented,” Cr Eckel said.
“So we might be excited about what’s ahead of us but at the same time, we’ve still got millions of dollars going past this area until such time as the RV friendly status is placed on this municipality.”
According to the strategy, just under half of RV, caravan and camping visitors to the region are from Victoria, compared to the state average of 85 per cent.
However, the Mildura LGA attracts stronger visitor numbers from South Australia and NSW, than the Victorian average.
An audit carried out as part of the strategy, identified the region has 28 caravan and holiday parks, 27 national park camp grounds, three free camp grounds, three paid campgrounds and 12 rest areas.
To increase the capacity of the existing infrastructure, the strategy suggested putting up better signage in relation to location of properties and facilities, developing infrastructure to better attract travellers, improve accessibility of sites for long vehicles, and the ability to redeploy free campers into commercial parks during busy periods.
Councillor Glenn Milne said the strategy had been a long time coming but with its adoption there were many opportunities that could arise.
“We probably should have done a couple of years ago, but at least it’s up there now and we’re working on it,” Cr Milne said.
“There’s a huge market out there and we’ve got a great destination for camping and caravanning. I just hope we can overcome a lot of the issues, such as competitive neutrality, and all of those issues that other councils seem to have been able to overcome.
“I hope as we work through the process that we can really maximise the outcomes for the community particularly in the form of tourists and the tourism dollar because there’s certainly money to be made at the moment.”
Recommendations to be achieved during the five-year strategy include maximising capacity and occupancy levels at camping sites and caravan and holiday parks, enhancing visitor sentiment and exploring the relocation of assets such as the Visitor Information Centre, Mildura dump site and short-stay day and overnight parking.
