Tourism boost: New round of Victorian travel vouchers opens Wednesday

140,000 travel vouchers will be up for grabs as the Victorian Travel Voucher Scheme goes live once again at 2pm on Wednesday.

The Victorian Travel Voucher Scheme provides successful applicants with a $200 reimbursement when expenses of more than $400 are incurred across accommodation, attraction and experiences.

Vouchers are limited to one per household. To be eligible, travellers must stay in paid accommodation including hotels, motels, serviced apartments, caravan parks and campsites for a minimum of two consecutive nights.

Those that secure a voucher can claim expenses incurred during the program travel period of April 8 and May 27, 2022.

The 140,000 vouchers to be released are in addition to the 10,000 travel vouchers made available exclusively to eligible seniors via a ballot last week, with 34,047 eligible applications made.

Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism industry development manager Jo Birley said historically the travel vouchers had worked to drive visitation to the region.

"The feedback last time was great, we definitely saw an impact from from the last regional travel voucher scheme and we're looking forward to that again as we enter the off-peak season," she said.

"This year the additional challenge is people can go to warmer places as borders open.

"The optimistic thing for our region is there's great events scheduled over that period including the Koroit Irish Festival, Hooked on Portland, the Warrnambool May Racing Carnival, the Ripcurl Pro and the Great Ocean Road running festival."

She urged locals to consider buying vouchers to travel within the region.

"Locals don't have to go elsewhere," Ms Birley said.

"It's important to continue to focus on the domestic market because international visitors will continue to be limited while airline capacity is limited and travel hesitancy is still quite strong."

Staff shortages and Omicron COVID-19 outbreaks presented the biggest challenges for south-west Victoria over the summer.

Owner of Great Ocean Road boutique cheesery Apostle Whey Cheese, Julian Benson, said the vouchers would help, but more needs to be done to support small businesses.

"All those things are going to help but the biggest hurdle we've got is people are scared of going anywhere, we need to focus on opening up and to have a bit more freedom," he said.

"People staying in Australia trying to help out locals rather than going overseas with their money is another big thing.

"We encourage people to stay in the state and try to rebuild businesses."

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When the pandemic hit in 2020 Mr Benson was lucky to see one customer through his doors a day.

"We were open all the time because we're making cheese but hardly anyone was coming through," he said. "It was also impacting the businesses we were supplying, like IGA and FoodWorks. They were getting less customers too so what they were buying halved.

"It was pretty tough."

His business was saved by JobKeeper.

"Not only did save us but it saved our staff from being made redundant," Mr Benson said. "Now that things are turning around we've still got those staff which is a big positive for us.

"Trying to get new people in and retrain people costs a hell of a lot of money.

"I like to think now that we're really starting to open up we'll be in a really good position to take advantage of the travel voucher scheme."

To date, more than $159 million has been spent under the Victorian travel voucher program on accommodation, tours and experiences across the state.

Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events Martin Pakula said Victoria has some of the best destinations and attractions in the world.

"We're encouraging Victorians to discover something new and also support local businesses and jobs," he said.

"Victorians have embraced travel vouchers, and this fourth round of the program gives them another chance to experience the best our state has to offer."

To apply for a Victorian travel voucher when applications open, visit vic.gov.au/business-stimulus-package.