Plenty of travel discounts left
TRAVEL vouchers have landed in the email inboxes of Tasmanians as more accommodation businesses offer special deals to ensure more locals can enjoy a discounted holiday.
From the Derwent Valley to the East Coast and Flinders Island, businesses are cutting prices and even offering free deals to make sure the holiday at home buzz, and much needed tourism spending dollar, is spread around.
Liz Virtue from Glen Derwent in the Derwent Valley, which has tea rooms and three self-contained units, said she decided to knock $100 a night off the price of her accommodation after learning how many people had missed out on securing a government travel voucher.
The Tasmanian government’s Make Yourself at Home vouchers came online at 9am on Monday and all $7.5m worth were snapped up within 40 minutes.
The vouchers were expected to be delivered within 24 hours but it was delayed because duplicate applications were detected and an audit done to ensure fairness. Most were received by Wednesday.
Premier Peter Gutwein said the audit found about 5 per cent of registrations were duplicates, and that remaining funds would be rolled into a second tranche of the scheme.
“We were a little sad with how quickly the Tasmanian travel vouchers ran out,” Mrs Virtue said.
“I guess we should have known that while $7.5m sounds like a lot of money, if you divide it by $150 per person, fewer than 10 per cent of Tasmanians would succeed in registering.
“To cheer us and everyone else up, we’re taking $100 (and breakfast) off our nightly rates for stays of three or more nights from now until the end of November.”
Mrs Virtue said her business only had a handful of bookings between now and Christmas so to fill her units at a reduced rate was better than having them sit empty.
Picnic Island owner Clem Newton-Brown said his business was offering its own independent $100 travel voucher discount for two-night midweek bookings until November. The island, about 6km from Wineglass Bay, is offering one voucher per guest rather than one per room.
“So with 10 guests it usually costs $440 per person for a two-night night stay. This will be reduced to $340 per person for both nights, including water taxi to the island,” Mr Newton-Brown said.
“If people were lucky enough to get a Tasmanian government voucher they can also claim this to further reduce the costs.”
On Flinders Island, Sawyers Bay Shacks will give the same government voucher discount on the same terms to those who missed out.
Franklin Labor
MP David O’Byrne said the delivery of the vouchers and disappointment of those who missed out raised questions about the effectiveness of the program.