January 24 2024

Date

Hi all,

A big thanks to those of you who came along to our ‘Welcome to 2024’ event at the amazing Wombat Forest Winery last night. Great turnout, great vibe, and it was great to officially launch our Destination Management Plan!

Destination Management Plan

For those who couldn’t make it, we shared a copy of the DMP summary document, which you can download here. DMT partners can access the full plan here. If you’re not a partner and are interested in joining us, find out why you should here.

In what is remarkably good timing, the State Government recently launched the second Enabling Tourism Fund. This fund is open to us as the RTB, but is also open to businesses, so is worth having a look at. There is a 1:4 co-contribution (so if you get $100k you need to tip in $25k for example) but if you have expansion plans or the like, have a look. Here’s the spiel:

Enabling Tourism Fund

The program is investing up to $8m to support regional and rural Victorian tourism infrastructure projects to reach investment-ready status.

The fund has 5 key product focus priorities (all of which were identified in Experience Victoria 2033):

  • First peoples led experiences
  • Wellness
  • Arts and Culture
  • Food and drink
  • Nature

There will be 2 streams available:

  • Stream 1: Testing the concept – projects looking to test an idea of a new infrastructure project through a feasibility study, master plan or business case.
  • Stream 2: Preparing for investment – this will look to prepare a combination of materials to ensure a project is ready for infrastructure investment. This means detailed design, funding strategy, community engagement plans and the like.

Both streams have grant amounts available of between $20k and $500k. Details and guidelines can be found here).

Any questions, just shoot me an email at

We all wish you a healthy, happy and prosperous 2024. There will be headwinds for sure, but that’s when you need a good plan and thriving networks.

Reminder: Business Breakfast

Oh…and don’t forget that we have another great event coming up, which is FREE to partners and valued at $180. It is our business breakfast with Catherine Bell, HR and Management expert, held on Tuesday Feb 13th at 7am at the Cosmo in Trentham. Book your spot here.

Cheers,
Steve Wroe (he/him)
CEO
Daylesford Macedon Tourism