Regional Vic towns report 200 per cent increase as Melburnians escape city

Regional Victorian towns are experiencing a 200 per cent increase in visitors as Melburnians escape to the country to avoid the city’s Covid explosion. See the most visited towns.

Regional Victoria is reporting a “200 per cent increase” in visitors compared to this time last year as Melburnians turn to the country to escape the city’s explosion in Covid cases.

Even towns that are not considered tourism hot spots, including Shepparton in the state’s north, are reporting influxes of people.

Greater Shepparton City Council recorded a 275 per cent increase in visitors to its visitor centre between Christmas and the New Year.

Of the 2140 visitors, 80 per cent were from Melbourne.

Mayor Kim O’Keeffe said the busiest day saw 273 visitors in her town.

“The staff reported lots of people were looking for family friendly activities, dining recommendations and to participate in the Moooving Art Round Up, which is fantastic for the region and our local economy,” she said.

“More than half of the visitors through the doors also visited the Shepparton Art Museum.”

Shepparton Art Museum is proving popular. Picture: John Gollings Photography

The Bendigo International has proven to be popular with visitors. Photo: Getty Images.

In central Victoria, Ballarat’s Art Gallery and Eureka Centre saw visitation numbers up 200 per cent compared to the same time last summer.

“The entire local tourism industry has been working hard to position Ballarat as a highly attractive place to visit over summer,” acting City of Ballarat chief executive Matthew Wilson said.

Greater Bendigo Council said interest had almost doubled pre-Covid levels.

Acting manager for tourism and manager events Glenn Harvey said events such as the Bendigo International Pro Tournament, a qualifying tournament for the Australian Open, gave the accommodation sector a boost.

“In the same period, both this year and last year, we’ve averaged about 25,000 visits to our Bendigo Tourism website,” he said.

“Pre-Covid and in the same period, visitation to the website sat at around 13,000 visits. This growth may be due to people choosing not to go to busier beach locations, and also people wanting to make the most of being able to move around and see people and do things they have missed.”

On the Bass Coast in Phillip Island, there were 8633 customers through the doors between December 1 and January 11 with 1262 calls answered.

Some border communities, however, have reported a “quieter than usual” holiday period.

But Mildura Regional Development chief executive Brett Millington said despite lower visitor numbers the Murray River continued to be popular.

“In the first few weeks of January there was lots of concern around Omicron which I think led to fewer visitors,” he said.

“Visitors were mostly coming from regional Victoria, we did see a few from Melbourne but not nearly as many from South Australia.

“We are a tri-state area and the amount of visitors we saw coming from South Australia was down by about 20 per cent compared to previous years.”