The first of 120,000 travel vouchers will be available from tomorrow – helping families get out to regional Victoria for the summer and kickstarting the tourism recovery in all corners of regional Victoria.

The vouchers will provide added incentive for Victorians to explore their beautiful back yard and support regional communities hard hit by bushfires, pandemic and other challenges this year.

The vouchers will be rollout out in tranches, with 40,000 vouchers valued at $200 each redeemable for travel between Saturday, 12 December and Friday, 22 January – providing a major boost for the operators of accommodation and tourism businesses across the state in the peak summer holiday period.

The vouchers will be available from 10:00am tomorrow, with successful applicants able to redeem their voucher after they have travelled, ensuring cash flows immediately to regional businesses.

Additional lots of 40,000 vouchers will become available on 20 January for travel between 27 January and 1 April and on 30 March for travel between 6 April and 31 May – spreading the benefits for regional communities well into the year. Any vouchers not used in the first two rounds will be added to the third round.

The $28 million Regional Travel Voucher Scheme is part of the multi-pronged $465 million Victorian Tourism Recovery Package, which also provides almost $300 million to improve infrastructure in iconic locations including Gippsland, the Great Ocean Road, Wilsons Promontory and the Grampians and invest in new tourism projects.

The voucher scheme is open toVictorian residents aged 18 or over when they spend a minimum $400 on accommodation, experiences or tours in regional Victoria in specified periods.

Vouchers will be limited to one per household and travellers will be required to spend at least two nights in paid accommodation in regional Victoria to qualify for the scheme.

Victorians will register through the Business Victoria website and if successful, be provided with a link to redeem the voucher after their travel is completed. Vouchers will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

To apply for the voucher scheme, visit business.vic.gov.au/travelvouchers from 10:00am, Friday 11 December.