Traders, shoppers continue to spend big with MyDarwin vouchers

DARWIN council’s first round of festive season MyDarwin vouchers, which dried up on Sunday, generated more than $1m in sales

DARWIN council’s first round of festive season MyDarwin vouchers, which dried up on Sunday, generated more than $1.2m in sales.

The latest $200,000 was spread out over 48 hours rather than 24 hours, allowing more businesses and shoppers to benefit from the vouchers.

Delaney’s Country and Western Store manager Patrick Delaney said it was a welcome bonus during the Christmas period after what had been a tough year for Territorians.

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“Fridays and Saturdays are always busy, we probably did have a few more in (the shop since the vouchers restarted),” he said.

“We did have some people asking last week if we were going to use it or not, so they came back the following week.

“It certainly brought a lot of people in, whether they were going to come in or not anyway we’re not sure but they were happy to use it.”

A Darwin council spokesman said it had been the second highest multiplier-spend by local residents during the MyDarwin program.

Patrick from Delaney's said they have benefited from the MyDarwin voucher scheme. The third generation Territory outfitter has seen a strong uptick in customers walking through the door. Picture: Che Chorley

“The total transactions amount resulting from the vouchers was a spend of $1,220,933 which is a substantial return of $6.10 spent in the local Darwin economy for every dollar of the $200,000 joint investment by City of Darwin and the Northern Territory government,” he said.

“Outside of the Darwin CBD area, merchants in the suburbs of Millner, Berrimah, Parap, Nightcliff, Nakara and Casuarina were some of the areas supported strongly by MyDarwin’s latest round of vouchers.”

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Mr Delaney said swapping free parking for the MyDarwin vouchers was well received.

“Certainly a bit of both would be good, maybe they could target busy times with the free parking but you also need the turnover,” he said.

“The punters would probably be happy to pay for a park and get a discount on something else in town.”

The next Round of the MyDarwin vouchers begins on January 20 next year.