Travel vouchers snapped up across Australia within hours

Young woman at the devil's Marbles makes a heart shape finger frame to the spectacular landscape at sunrise. Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve, Northern Territory, Australia.

By Christian Fleetwood

Both the Northern Territory and South Australia have enjoyed massive success with their respective travel voucher programs, the likes of which sold out within hours.

Up north, Territorians were ready and waiting for the 8pm Territory Tourism Vouchers to go live on Tuesday night, with vouchers fully subscribed within eight hours, a spokeswoman told Travel Weekly.

Registrations for the voucher opened at 8pm and there were 26,700 unique visitors to the website in the first hour. This was almost 10 times the traffic experienced in round one of the NT’s travel voucher program.

This level of traffic to the website caused extended wait times for people registering, with Territorians rushing to support the local Tourism and Hospitality industry resulting in some delays.

Territorians will start to receive their vouchers from 4 November in a staggered approach. While all eligible registrants will receive their voucher within seven days.

The popular COVID-19 stimulus came in a bid to support the region’s tourism industry, which has been hard hit by the pandemic and also support jobs across the tourism and hospitality industries.

Vouchers must be redeemed within 14 or less days from date of issue, with travel to be undertaken by 31 January 2021.

In addition, for the first time in this new round, those who secured a voucher are eligible for an additional $200 redeemable post-travel for eligible trips over 400 kilometres from a home address, in order to encourage Territorians to adventure further from home.

Meanwhile, in South Australia, locals snapped up more than 50,000 ‘Great State Vouchers’ in just over an hour, after the travel voucher program opened on 15 October.

The vouchers – a $4 million tourism stimulus initiative of the South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC) – sold out in 90 minutes, with the regional vouchers being exhausted at 9:55am, and the CBD vouchers selling out at 10:27am. The first voucher was claimed at 9:01am.

“Around 50,000 vouchers were issued – that’s a great shot in the arm for the South Australian tourism sector that is focused on fighting back to its 2019 $8.1 billion record high,” SATC chief executive Rodney Harrex said.

“We’d like to thank all of those South Australians who have logged in today – effectively helping to book out rooms from now until 11 December – it’s the kind of support that is going to give hospitality staff and tourism operators a massive reason to smile this morning.

“We are now looking forward to hearing where South Australians book their stays – will they choose one of the new five-star hotels in the city or maybe head to the regions.

“There are many amazing deals and iconic accommodation properties, so this is a great way for everyone to get out and explore our own state.”

The travel voucher success in the NT and SA comes after a similar initiative in Tasmania was a massive hit with locals, supporting 25,000 bed nights and 50,000 tourism experiences each month.

That move by Tassie to offer vouchers to intrastate travellers echoed a similar decision by the Northern Territory government, which in July began providing a dollar-for-dollar scheme for internal travellers who receive $200 for every $200 they spend.

Featured image source: iStock/swissmediavision

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