New $50 travel voucher for young Australians via Travello to help boost tourism industry

Young Aussies will be able to use a $50 voucher to help kickstart the ailing tourism industry. See what experiences are up for grabs in your state.

Andrew Koubaridis

@akoubaridis

3 min read

June 16, 2021 - 7:55AM

News Corp Australia Network

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Exclusive: A travel experience company hopes to lure young Australians into domestic travel by enticing them with over half a million $50 travel vouchers.

The offer, from Travello, is available to any Australian aged between 18-35 and will provide a $30 million injection into the nation’s tourism industry that has been battered by lockdowns and closed borders.

Travello chief executive Ryan Hanly said more than 600,000 vouchers were available from June 16, with over 1000 travel experiences on offer around the country.

The focus was on experiences that normally are filled with international tourists and Australians don’t do – despite being in their own country.

“When Australians travel overseas they fill their days with wine tours and walking tours, or visiting castles … but what we have seen here is people might book a trip to Noosa and spend the day at the beach or beside the pool – but people aren’t booking surfing lessons, for example.”

Australians don’t normally go for experience-led holidays domestically.

Mr Hanly said experiences through the tourism industry were uneven, with accommodation faring much better than experience-based providers like the Story Bridge climb.

Recent surveys indicated young Australians were reluctant to travel domestically, with expensive travel and a perceived lack of exciting activities or locations being the main contributors.

“A lot of these things young Australians haven’t tried these things before – and they are the same adventures people used to come from all around the world to do.”

Mr Hanly said there was “no better time” to adventure in Australia now “when people can’t leave”.

He said Travello was happy to provide the stimulus because it ultimately would benefit everyone.

The tourism industry in Australia has been devastated by the pandemic. Photo: iStock

“We need these companies to be doing well. It’s really hard for them to plan staffing and their operations when they might be busy at weekends and school holidays, but then having nothing during the middle of the week.”

He estimated the Holiday Cash Giveaway would plunge up to $100 million back into tourism providers and through flow on effects into the community.

The vouchers offer comes after state governments tried to tempt holiday-makers into tourist destinations.

'Surfing lessons is one of the potential ways to use the new travel vouchers.

NSW announced a $51.5 million stimulus package for the entertainment, accommodation and tourism industries earlier this year, which included a program where 200,000 vouchers worth $100 each will be made available for hotel stays, while the Victorian Government recently announced $16 million to fund 80,000 travel vouchers valued at $200 each.

However, Queensland has had mixed success with their scheme — just 12,000 of 51,000 holiday vouchers it offered after strict terms and conditions meant more went to waste than were actually used.

Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond said Travello had been “really clever” in trying to activate a demographic that was normally reluctant to travel domestically and have experience-led holidays.

Wine tours are one way to help boost local economies that have been starved of international tourists.

“If they can get these people to think differently about holidays in Australia, then that’s a good thing,” Ms Osmond said, adding there were long-term benefits if young Australians changed their travel habits.

She said it was also smart Travello hadn’t attached too many conditions on the tickets.

“Anecdotally, we have heard many get downloaded, but do they get used? The vouchers that seem to be used most are ones with the least restrictions,” she said.

The vouchers can be used on any travel experience sold on the Travello site, including these popular options:

Queensland

Dreamtime Dive and Snorkel from Cairns

Reefsleep – Great Barrier Reef and Whitsundays 2 Days 1 Night Sailing Tour

Fraser Island 2 Day Tag Along 4WD Tour

Whale Watching Gold Coast Tour

Northern Territory

The Best of Alice Springs Tour

Hot Air Balloon Flight Alice Springs

Start & End Uluru 2 Day 1 Night Tour (Dingo)

South Australia

Kangaroo Island Boat Tour