Building on the year’s biggest tourism news — the announcement of a Lenny Kravitz concert in November — Mildura is riding a wave of visitor interest, with tourism spending surging in a number of key areas over the past 12 months, injecting $220 million into the local economy.
Events and Tourism Councillor Rebecca Crossling said Council’s latest tourism data showed increases in spending across almost every key category including:
• 18 per cent increase in spending on attractions, events and recreation compared to 8.5 per cent for regional Victoria
• 17 per cent increase in spending on breweries and wineries, compared a drop of 8.1 per cent for regional Victoria
• 14 per cent increase in spending on local restaurants.
“We’ve seen this momentum building in the 10 months since the Tropical North Victoria (TNV) campaign was launched in August 2024,” Cr Crossing said.
“We saw the staggering amount of national media coverage when TVN was launched, providing us with around $2.5 million in advertising value, which certainly got us out there in the minds of potential visitors.”
Council’s Manager Economic Development and Tourism Leesa Merrett said the region was now beginning to see the impacts of this exposure.
“It was always going to take a little time for this to translate into visitor numbers – you don’t launch a tourism campaign like this and expect visitors to immediately flock to our region in the first couple of months,” Mrs Merrett said.
“We know that people generally plan their holidays months in advance based on work and family commitments, which is why we’ve seen the increased visitor numbers and spending gradually building over the past 10 months.
“We’re now seeing clear evidence of this. If we look at Easter 2025 as an example, spending compared to the previous year was up in almost every category, injecting $14 million into local businesses over five days, a 10% increase in visitor spending compared to the previous year.”
Mrs Merrett said interest was continuing to ramp up based on the latest Wotif data which showed Mildura is the top trending domestic destination in Australia for July – a 257 per cent increase in searches for the July school holidays. The next closest destination was Carlton which was up 77 per cent.
“While it’s no coincidence this comes on the back of our TNV campaign, I think there are a couple of other factors at play as well – a similar combination of factors that saw our record day visitor numbers in 2022,” she said.
“If we look back to 2022 where we saw a spike in visitor numbers, we had the Kings of Leon concert, an AFLW game and a WNBL game within about four weeks. We’d also come out of COVID and the impacts of the Murray River flood event.
“This year, we’ve already had the launch of Trail of Lights, which will ramp up further during the warmer months of the year and just this week it was announced Lenny Kravitz will perform here in November, which is massive in terms of drawing visitors to our region.
“And behind all of that is the ongoing momentum of the TNV campaign, which has reached millions of people across the country, showcasing the breadth of options our region has to offer a whole raft of demographics and interests.”
Local tourism operator Maureen Croft from Tranquil Waters Caravan Park said despite early misgivings the new campaign had brought tourists their way.
“Initially when I heard about the Tropical North Victoria campaign I was very sceptical, it seemed a bit ridiculous to me and a lot of Mildura people felt the same way,” she said.
“But as far as our business goes it’s been a resounding success, we have Tranquil Waters Caravan Park at Lake Cullulleraine and we had the busiest summer holidays and pre Easter/ Easter holidays ever. We have had the park for six years.
“Whether people think it was good publicity or bad publicity it got Mildura and surrounds noticed and I guess that’s what the campaign was all about.”
