Map of East Gippsland Shire Source

Tourism group transcends borders

Establishing a shirewide group of any nature in East Gippsland is a real challenge. The shire covers 2.3 million hectares which is nearly 10 percent of the State. The distances between the towns can be larger than usual for Victorian shires. It's a 230km drive from Mallacoota in the north to Bairnsdale in the south and 122km from Metung on the coast to Omeo near the mountains.

Each town in the shire has its own Business and Tourism Association however there was a lack of connectivity between the groups. They only met quarterly and were going hard at IB (isolated beavering!).

Disgruntled with the lack of Shirewide representation, the township Business and Tourism Associations got together to form East Gippsland Business and Tourism Association, a shirewide body representing the business and tourism industry. The organisation's development has been facilitated by Tourism Alliance Victoria. It has been meeting once a month since August last year and includes representatives from the Business and Tourism Associations of each of the towns of Orbost, Paynesville, Metung, Mallacoota, Nicholson/Tambo, Bruthen, Buchan, Lakes Entrance and Bairnsdale.

Rather than taking the usual path of focusing on the structure the group agreed to identify a single project to focus on during it's first year. It accessed some research from Tourism Victoria and found visitors were expecting a higher quality of tourism publications than what was present in the market place. The East Gippsland Business and Tourism Association decided to make the production, financing, marketing and distribution of a high quality Official Visitors Guide it's priority task for the year.

Each Committee member travels for up to two hours (some more) to make the monthly meetings which are hosted by one of the participating BTAs.

The Committee has established strong relationships with East Gippsland Shire Council and the regional tourism marketing board (Destination Gippsland) and intends to build relations with Parks Victoria and the Department of Sustainability and Environment.

For more information contact Bindi Gove, Manager, Business and Industry Development, Tourism Alliance Victoria 03 9650 8399

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