Premier Peter Gutwein hints at second round of travel vouchers after first sold out in 40 minutes
Premier Peter Gutwein has already hinted at a round two of the ‘Make Yourself At Home’ vouchers after all 21,500 were snapped up within 40 minutes this morning. DETAILS >>
Tasmania
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LATEST: PREMIER Peter Gutwein has hailed the uptake of the government’s travel voucher scheme, while leaving the door open for another round of funding for the initiative.
The $7.5 million Make Yourself At Home travel voucher campaign closed in less than 40 minutes after the website went live this morning.
Mr Gutwein labelled the scheme a “roaring success” as 550 voucher packages were claimed per minute.
More than one million dollars worth of vouchers were claimed within the first four minutes.
“There were around 21,500 vouchers that were issued and we expect that will benefit about 60,000 Tasmanians,” Mr Gutwein said.
Mercury readers, who missed out on vouchers, slammed the website’s functionality, reporting loading issues and site crashes.
A Mercury Facebook post about the voucher scheme’s launch gathered more than 300 comments, most of which were complaints about the website’s performance or about missing out on a voucher.
Premier Gutwein said the state government hasn’t ruled out extending the $7.5m funding pool.
“I’m not going to rule it out. What we will do is run a diagnostic, have a look at the number of vouchers that are out there, but I’m certain that we might do this again,” he said.
“The demand was far in excess of what we thought it was going to be. Tasmanians, quite obviously, want to get out and visit this beautiful state and take part in the experiences and attractions that we’ve got.”
He said a reminder email would be sent in thirty days’ time to people who have received a voucher but not redeemed it.
EARLIER: TASMANIANS who missed out on the state government’s travel voucher scheme have deplored the “p … poor” system which crashed and closed within an hour of opening.
Seven and a half-million dollars worth of travel vouchers were snapped up by eager travellers 40 minutes after becoming available at 9am on Monday.
Mercury readers and social media users reported a list of website issues including extended loading times, website crashes and problems with page verification.
Tasmanians, who missed out on vouchers, slammed the website’s functionality.
Adam Banks said the scheme was poorly designed.
“P … poor if you ask me,” he said.
“The vouchers were made available at 9am on a Monday morning when most essential workers are at work and can’t get online to register. So much for wanting to stimulate the local economy and look after the people who’ve put in the long hours during COVID,” he said.
“Not impressed. I tried registering 50 times from 9am and it crashed/froze every time,” one online user wrote.
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“Either it took too long to load or crashed at the verification stage. I couldn’t even submit the last page. Was this website even developed and tested by a professional app developer?
An excellent idea, but terrible execution.”
A message on the Make Yourself at Home website’s register page thanked those who did not get in before they ran out.
“Thanks for your interest in the Make Yourself At Home Travel Voucher program. Unfortunately it seems we were too popular,” the website read.
“The voucher program is currently fully registered and no further vouchers are available for registration at this time.”
Another reader said they spent more than an hour trying to verify their purchase, while another user praised the website, saying “worked perfectly for me. No issues at all”.
Roughly $187,000 worth of vouchers were snapped up every minute the site was live.
Reports have also emerged of users being unable to access the register page while the vouchers were still available.
INITIAL: TROUBLE has hit the state government’s highly anticipated travel voucher website, as Tasmanians flock to cash in on the deal.
The Buy Something Tasmanian site, aimed at re-sparking the state’s tourist economy by offering vouchers to locals, showed loading issues once the voucher scheme went live at 9am this morning.
Several Tasmanians reported not being able to load open the page.
Premier Peter Gutwein last week said the state government expected significant online traffic on the site, urging people to be patient if the website crashed.
Originally published as Premier Peter Gutwein hints at second round of travel vouchers after first sold out in 40 minutes