Vol. No. Vol. 2418No. 3527
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Wednesday, January 13, 2022 2016 Wednesday, March 16,
NEW ROLE: Grampians Tourism chair David Jochinke, pictured at a Minyip 150 years back-to celebration, has urged regional communities to continue building their events calendars. Picture: PAUL CARRACHER
Events stimulant G
BY DEAN LAWSON
rampians Tourism’s new chair David Jochinke has urged Wimmera people to take stock of a return to big weekend attractions across the region to reset their understanding of the value of event tourism.
Mr Jochinke said the success of a wealth of festivals and events from the Grampians to the southern Mallee during the Labour Day weekend illustrated the region’s community tourism appeal. He said the variety of attractions
were a lure to a broad cross-section of people, from outside as well as inside the region, and was ‘priceless’ from a socio-economic perspective. “I don’t think we realise just what it does when we showcase what our region has to offer,” he said. “We put on everything from dragracing, motocross and fishing to music, art and cultural festivals and machinery expos. It is fantastic that we can present such diversity.” Mr Jochinke, a Horsham district farmer and already a significant statewide Victorian Farmers Federation and community figure, has continued
his passion for regional development by stepping into the tourism board leadership role. He takes over from Ararat’s Paul Hooper. Mr Jochinke said he was absorbing the finer details of tourism in the greater Grampians region, but the value of community events and attractions had been obvious during the Labor Day weekend when thousands of people gathered in the region. “Last weekend represented the first real weekend to rekindle what the region offers as far as visitor events and activities go since coming out of the COVID-19 cloud,” he said.
“It helped showcase what we have and celebrate in the region and showed how determined and committed our communities are at presenting such events. “This is important on so many levels – sanity for a start – the ability to have something in our own back yard that people can attend with little cost and that organisers can scale up to their hearts’ desire is fantastic. “The amount of volunteer hours that go into these community events is something to behold and something for us to reflect on and celebrate how fortunate we are.”
Mr Jochinke said the message coming off the back of restrictions lifting was for the region to reinvest in itself and for communities to establish a vision ‘what they wanted to look like’. “It’s in our DNA to volunteer, put our hands up and have a go and not wait for external influences. It’s up to us. We’ve been good at it in the past so let’s keep going,” he said. “There is no cavalry coming to save us. We are the calvary, so let’s get on with it, dig deep and shake off what’s been a long, drawn-out and frustrating period and get on with living.” Continued page 3
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