Gippsland Industry Update 15 July 2026

Join Destination Gippsland for a series of practical tourism industry workshops. This is a great opportunity to come together with fellow tourism and hospitality operators, hear the latest industry trends and insights, and connect with the Destination Gippsland team.

• 13 October - Lakes Entrance
• 14 October - Mallacoota
• 28 October - Yarram & Maffra

Destination Gippsland has welcomed new Board Director, Carey Norton. Carey fills the casual vacancy created with the resignation of Mandi Davidson and brings strong industry experience and leadership. He is a hospitality professional with more than 40 years of experience across New Zealand, Australia and Vanuatu. Throughout his career, he has held a range of leadership and management positions within prominent hotel and tourism organisations, including his current role as Resort Manager - RACV Resort Inverloch.

Data for May showed healthy visitation trends for Gippsland with overnight visitors (+6%) and nights spent in Gippsland (+9.5%) both well up on the same month last year and above the Regional Victoria results. Overall visitation was up (+3.6%) which is a good result considering there were no major events in the region. The increased visitation result was offset though by a small reduction in visitor expenditure (-0.4%) which continues to be a reflection of consumer confidence and changing spending habits in the face of rising interest rates and cost of living. This could be a factor in the average daily rate for accommodation being down (-5.9%). If you would like to receive the monthly Destination Gippsland Visitor Economy Insights report please email Sarah Barrot here.