Long-term benefits for region
“It’s easily the biggest event in the Wimmera and the beauty of it is that people come from all corners of south-eastern Australia, so there’s a good mix of people here throughout several days” – Gloria Mcrae
The Wimmera is rolling out the welcome mat for thousands of visitors to the region.
However, the influx of people is not just a positive sign for tourism.
Leaders say it has the potential for broad, long-term benefits – including destination awareness, region pride, and investment, attraction and retention of skilled professionals.
Horsham Rural City Council tourism and business development officer Gloria Mcrae said more than 20,000 people would visit the region during the Wimmera Machinery Field Days.
“This has a huge impact on our local accommodation businesses as well as our cafes, bakeries and retail shops,” she said.
“It’s easily the biggest event in the Wimmera and the beauty of it is that people come from all corners of south-eastern Australia, so there’s a good mix of people here throughout several days.
“We find that accommodation closest to Horsham sells out first and then the demand starts to shift to neighbouring towns, which provides a welcome economic boost in those places as well.
“With visitors coming to our events, we want them to really get a glimpse of what the area has to offer.
“Events can change people’s perception of a destination.”
Grampians Tourism chief executive Marc Sleeman said large-scale events,
including the field days, served as an ‘appetiser’ to promote the region to visitors.
“You have events such as the field days and Grampians Grape Escape; you have events like the Dunkeld Races that attracts 10,000 visitors – and those events will bring incremental visitation to the region,” he said.
“People from interstate and intrastate will come to our destination to experience everything it has to offer.
“The flow-on effect is significant because they’re staying across the whole region.
“We don’t have enough accommodation in Horsham to cater for a bigscale event, so people who are going to the field days might stay in Stawell, for example.”
Mr Sleeman said the Grampians recorded the third-highest annual growth of a Victorian region of overnight spend increase, above levels recorded in the 12 months from September 2018 to September 2019 prior to the pandemic.
He said ‘brand awareness’ remained a significant challenge for the region – and one his regional tourism board was seeking to address, along with encouraging people to stay longer and spend money in the region.
“The data tells us that only 10 percent of metro Melbourne residents know where we are – so we’ve still got a lot of work to do,” he said.
“There’s such a low awareness that most of our activity is just a positioning piece for our region.”
Mr Sleeman said visitation growth had the potential to attract more private investment and it could also attract new residents to the region.
He said a ‘coalition of the willing’ – including the tourism board’s funding organisations and people and businesses in neighbouring areas – were leading a changing mindset in relation to tourism, service provision and population growth.
“We need to put the consumer at the front of every decision we make,” he said.