Building on the year’s biggest tourism news, the announcement of a Lenny Kravitz concert in November, Mildura Rural City Council says 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.
Councillor for Events and Tourism Rebecca Crossling said Council’s latest tourism data showed increases in spending across almost every key category including:
- 18% increase in spending on attractions, events and recreation compared to 8.5% for regional Victoria
- 17% increase in spending on breweries and wineries, compared a drop of 8.1% for regional Victoria
- 14% 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.
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.
Council has highlighted the following tourism figures:
- Easter visitor spending for 2025 ($14m) was 10% up on the previous year
- Christmas/New Year (2024/25) spending ($38.3m) was up 6% on the previous year
- Visitor spending over the past 12 months is $220 million
- Latest Wotif data shows Mildura is top trending domestic destination in Australia for July with a 257% increase in searches for July school holidays
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% increase in searches for the July school holidays.
The next closest destination was Carlton which was up 77%.
