By Callum Ludwig
With the peak of the Omicron wave hind us, Yarra Ranges tourism, hospitality, and entertainment businesses are excited by the prospect of more returning visitors, particularly with the support of the voucher schemes announced by the Victorian Government earlier this week.
The voucher schemes cover regional and metropolitan travel, entertainment and dining experiences, giving visitors voucher cash backs and 25 per cent rebates back in their pockets.
For travel, $200 vouchers are available for a minimum of a $400 spend.
For entertainment, a 25 per cent rebate with a maximum of $125 is up for grabs, and hospitality costs can also get a 25 per cent rebate for Monday to Thursday dining, which has a minimum spend of $40 and a maximum of $500.
Yarra Ranges Tourism CEO Simon O’Callaghan said the previous three rounds of the scheme, in late 2020 and early 2021, were extremely popular with visitors and encouraged them to travel and spend in the Yarra Valley.
“The evidence from the first few rounds is when they do come, they spend a lot more than the value of the voucher minimum,” he said.
“That’s a really positive thing for telling us about the breadth and depth of experiences and accommodation that they’re taking up.”
The regional scheme is in operation from Monday to Thursday, to encourage consumers to support suburban businesses,
Mr O’Callaghan said it was really pleasing that the voucher encourages travel on weekdays.
“When you inject incentives into the market, the last thing you want to do is put them into times when we’re already full like long weekends or normal weekends,” he said.
“Anything that builds the confidence of consumers to get back into the habit of travelling is a good thing.”
The Omicron wave caught not only businesses, but governments and communities by surprise after almost two already tough years for the tourism, hospitality, and entertainment industries.
Mr O’Callaghan said the large quantity of micro-businesses in the Yarra Ranges left many people unavailable to access government support throughout this time, but he is optimistic for tourism and business in the area.
“Everyone has really hurt as a result of this, being in an industry that was essentially the first impacted and will be the last to recover,” he said.
“Everyone’s seeing things move in the right direction, particularly with international borders reopening, quarantine requirements being wound back. In speaking to many of our operators, they’re seeing some really strong demand into the many months ahead, which is positive.”
