Convincing tourists to stay in the Ballarat region for longer by showcasing the diverse offerings will be the aim of the game for our new tourism body.
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Tourism Midwest Victoria chair John Pandazopoulos said our proximity to Melbourne means a core part of the tourism market comes from the state's city.
"You're more likely to grow the visitor economy by making people understand that there are more experiences available and opportunities [in the region] than they initially thought," he said.
Sovereign Hill is one of Ballarat's major drawcards for people living outside of the region, but Mr Pandazopoulos said sharing more of the other options available is important for growth.
The development of the Armstrong Street foodie precinct and the spill of restaurants into Mair Street is one example of how far the tourism space has come in Ballarat.
"When you look at all this big growth in the different food, distillery and bar options in Ballarat, that's fantastic," Mr Pandazopoulos said.
"They've got great bars in Melbourne, why would they want to [travel here], so you've got to link it up with other great experiences."
Mr Pandazopoulos said the new body would also focus on building sustainability into the industry.
"Tourism does have a seasonality," he said.
"If you can flatten out the lower periods, you create more meaningful ongoing jobs for people."
Why do we need a new tourism group?
The new tourism body, Tourism Midwest Victoria, brings together Ballarat council and the four surrounding local government areas Hepburn, Pyrenees, Golden Plains and Moorabool Shires.
It is a directive from the state government as part of their visitor economy recovery and reform plan and regional tourism review.
Tourism Midwest Victoria is the first visitor economy partnership to be formed, but there will be others across the state as the program is rolled out.
Mr Pandazopoulos said it was important to view the tourism region in the same way the tourists do and seeing the area as a whole region rather than individual LGAs is more productive because "it's the way the consumer thinks".
"There are a lot of eyes on us, both locally and at the state level, to see how we work to make it happen," he said.
Taking pride in our offering
Mr Pandazopoulos said he was pleased to see a strong 'visiting family and relatives market'.
"About 50 per cent of visitors to the region are people that have been invited by people that already live [here] - it's a pretty mature approach," he said.
"It tells me that there's not only a high sense of community pride about what's available in the region, but also people are satisfied."
Improving facilities for the purpose of tourism can also have an influence on the livability of our city.
"Visitors help create the economic means, to make businesses viable which then locals have access," Mr Pandazopoulos said.
"They also need local support ... and ongoing customers because they're the core customers predominantly midweek when travel is a bit slower than the weekends."
Next steps after Commonwealth Games
There will be a funding pool for tourism projects as part of the suite of announcements following the cancellation of the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Mr Pandazopoulos said they were still waiting for specific details on what kind of project would fit the funding guidelines best, but would be advocating for projects in the region to be funded.
He said the Games were about certain parts of the state.
"Whilst we understand that they want a competitive process, maybe one of the criteria in any decision making would be, 'are you applying from a Games affected area'?"
Last week the board for Tourism Midwest Victoria was elected and are now working on a Destination Management Plan.
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