4 days ago
Tropical North Victoria campaign a 'huge flop' as Mildura tourism falls
Business operators in Mildura say a costly tourism campaign urging holiday-makers to go to Mildura instead of Queensland has so far fallen flat.
The Tropical North Victoria campaign, launched by Mildura Rural City Council in August and fronted by actor Shane Jacobson, aimed to increase tourism to the region by 5 per cent a year for four years and generate more than a billion dollars in economic benefits.
But 10 months in, local business operators say the campaign is falling well short.
Latest tourism data for Mildura shows a drop in holiday-makers in 2024, compared to the previous two years.
"Everyone was blindsided when they launched the Tropical North Vic campaign," said Mildura Paddlesteamers marketing manager Ashton McKenzie.
"It's just not done properly. It's a huge flop."
Ms McKenzie said the campaign lacked collaboration with local businesses and did not showcase what the region had to offer.
"It's just not working because it's not what Mildura is really about," she said.
In a statement, Mildura Rural City Council said it had hired a staff member to work directly with businesses to ensure greater collaboration in tourism projects.
Budget documents show Mildura City Council spent $390,000 of its $600,000 tourism budget on the Tropical North Victoria campaign in the 2023-'24 financial year.
Yet, day visitor numbers to Mildura last year were more than 20 per cent down on the region's five-year average, according to data from Murray Regional Tourism.
In 2022, the number of visitor day trips to Mildura was 457,608 across the year, which dropped by nearly half to 254,333 trips in 2024 — almost 80,000 trips fewer than the five-year average.
Of those visitors, just 34,000 people reported visiting the region for holiday purposes in 2024, down from 182,000 in 2022.
When the council launched the Tropical North Victoria campaign in 2024, former council general manager Peter Alexander said the aim was to capture tourists who would otherwise be visiting Queensland for holidays.
"If we were to capture just 1.6 per cent of the Queensland tourism market, we would double our annual tourism market," Mr Alexander said at the time.
In a statement, Mildura Rural City Council acting general manager for strategy and growth Cheree Jukes said day trips to the region peaked in 2022 due to a "unique combination of factors" and council had expected visitor numbers to decline due to factors such as an increasing cost-of-living.
She pointed to an increase in overnight stays between 2022 and 2024, showing 300,000 more stays in 2024 compared to 2022.
But data from Murray Regional Tourism shows the number of individual visits to the region for holiday purposes fell 28 per cent in 2024 compared to 2022, while the number of people visiting for work or to visit family and friends increased.
Fossey's Brewery managing director Steve Timmis said the local tourism sector was in a "precarious situation".
Mr Timmis closed his bar last year for financial reasons and said council's goal for the tourism campaign was ambitious, given trends.
"We're not going to have a 20 per cent increase in tourism over the next four years. That's just a flat no on the back of that marketing campaign," Mr Timmis said.
However, Ms Jukes said data showed the amount of money visitors were spending in the region had increased by 3.5 per cent over the past 12 months.
She said, overall, there had been a $46 million increase in tourism spending in the region since 2022, based on average daily spend.
Victorian Tourism Minister Steve Dimopoulos said the increased cost of living was affecting tourism across Australia and was not a reflection on the success of the Tropical North Victoria campaign.
"A lot of people in Australia can't travel because of the cost-of-living situation … so I don't think you can localise it to Mildura [because] it's fairly uniform across the country," he said.
Data from Mildura Airport shows the loss of budget airline Bonza last year affected the number of people travelling to Mildura.
Bonza, which flew between Mildura and the Gold Coast, went into voluntary administration in April last year.
According to Mildura Airport's 2023-'24 annual report the flights were "very successful" and resulted in 40,000 additional passengers travelling through the airport compared to the previous year.
The report predicted passenger numbers would drop 18 per cent this financial year as a result of the airline's closure.
"The direct, low-cost option Bonza provided opened new markets and travel opportunities that have not yet been fully replaced," Mildura Airport said.
