Vic tourism wants flight scheme changes

Sally Capp has joined Victorian Tourism Minister Martin Pakula and the state's 12 regional tourism boards in calling for changes to the federal government's national airline ticket scheme.

The regional boards have co-signed a letter to federal Tourism Minister Dan Tehan, "urgently" asking that Tullamarine and three regional airports are added to the package.

Ms Capp also is unimpressed, paraphrasing the marketing campaign that Scott Morrison oversaw when he was at Tourism Australia.

"To use a phrase created by our PM - we need more discounted flights to Melbourne, where the bloody hell are they?" she told 3AW.

"This federal government scheme signals that people should feel confident to get on flights.

"But it's also directing people to places and we need to let people know - Victoria is open for business."

The regional boards say in their letter they are "deeply disappointed" Avalon remains the only Victorian airport to feature in the $1.2 billion tourism rescue package.

The scheme will involve 800,000 half-price flights between April and July.

Airlines have have welcomed the scheme, though critics warn it is an incomplete replacement for JobKeeper wage subsidies and unfairly targets marginal seats.

In the letter, which Mr Pakula tweeted on Wednesday morning, local tourism boards "urgently" called on the federal government to add more destinations.

Apart from Tullamarine, they also want Albury, Bendigo and Mildura airports included.

"The vast majority of regional Victoria missed out - and disproportionately - compared with regional areas in other parts of the country," they said.

Tourism areas such as the High Country and Gippsland wrote of the twin impacts on businesses from the 2019-20 bushfires and then the pandemic.

"Our businesses and regions continue to be severely impacted by the loss of interstate and international tourism through restrictions and border closures," they said.

Mr Pakula said it looks as if Melbourne and Sydney were being used as source markets for the rest of the country's tourism.

"It's about time that this package was given a bit of a more equitable tone," he said outside parliament on Wednesday.

"It really is about time that they stopped playing politics with this scheme, and started using it to support Victorian regions that have suffered every bit as much as every other part of the country."

State Opposition Leader Michael O'Brien backed the push for a bigger Victorian profile in the scheme.

"If the federal government is able to accommodate what our Victorian tourism industry wants, I'd obviously support that, that'd be fantastic. Tourism is a huge job creator for the state," he said.

Australian Associated Press