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Dear all,

I daresay you have heard of the Regional Travel Vouchers Program.  This is a State Government initiative, to drive travel demand into regional Victoria.  It is designed to be very simple, with no onus on operators, other than the need to provide receipts.  You may receive questions from people, so we’ve tried to distil the facts into a list.  In a nutshell:

• People can apply for vouchers from 10 am tomorrow (Friday)
• They apply via a website www.business.vic.gov.au/travelvouchers
• There are 120,000 vouchers available over three rounds.  There are 40,000 vouchers available in this first round valued at $200 each and redeemable for travel taken between Saturday, 12 December and Friday, 22 January
• One per household and applicants must be 18 or older
• To be eligible for a refund, they must spend at least two nights in paid accommodation and be able to provide receipts
• They must spend at least $400 to be eligible for the refund

Things you can claim against:
Paid accommodation, which means serviced apartments, backpacker and hostels, bed and breakfasts, cabins or caravans in holiday parks, caravan and camping site fees, cottages, farm stays, private holiday rentals, houseboats, motels, hotels, resorts, retreats, and lodges

Paid tours and experiences, which means tour operators that offer regularly organised tours with a leisure-tourism focus, organised by experienced guides. These may include a personal host and/or commentary. For example, a boat cruise, guided walk, bus tour, air tour, agri-tourism, food and wine tour, sport tour, outdoor and adventure tour

Entry fees to regional attractions, which means places/areas of interest that offer a distinct visitor experience to the leisure tourist such as museums, water parks, local attractions, theme parks etc.

• Food and drink are not claimable (unless part of a package e.g. a tour), either are things like fuel
• The vouchers can be applied to existing bookings
• People have five weeks to claim and will be provided with several reminder emails
• Use it or lose it. If they don’t spend the full $400, or claim after the deadline, they miss out and will not be able to apply for subsequent rounds
• There are two subsequent rounds in 2021. Vouchers will become available on 20 January for travel between 27 January and 1 April and on 30 March for travel between 6 April and 31 May
• Any vouchers not used in the first two rounds will be added to the third round.

There’s an FAQ page here and a hotline 13 22 15 if anyone has any questions.

The other hotline is my mobile 0419 574 813…for you not your customers.

Cheers

Steve and the DMT Team