Council & Business
28 November, 2025
Tourism body hopes to enable growth
Destination Central Victoria, the region's new tourism body, are inviting local businesses to join.
Central Victoria’s new tourism body are calling on local businesses for membership.
Formerly called Daylesford Macedon Tourism, now Destination Central Victoria (DCV), the expanded tourism body includes Hepburn, Macedon Ranges, Mount Alexander and Central Goldfields shires.
The expansion came after a State Government push to consolidate tourism boards into a network of Visitor Economy Partnerships (VEP).
DCV CEO Steve Wroe said VEP’s larger scale improves their ability to support business operators.
That means access to DCV’s expanded marketing reach for local operators according to Mr Wroe.
That includes a database of 65,000 people which he claimed half of which open their email, alongside their social media channels and other campaigns.
“We’re super active in the marketing space. So we can certainly give businesses in the Central Goldfields much more reach and awareness particularly into the Melbourne market which is what we go after,” he said.
DCV often can “unblock blockers” with councils according to Mr Wroe.
“There’s nothing a business hates more than a council getting in the way,” he said.
However, local business’ access to DCV’s resources will depend on how much they’re willing to pay for a partnership.
The organisation splits their partnerships across three levels: Connected, Engaged, Strategic.
They offer increasing access to marketing tools, business intelligence, and networking opportunities.
Mr Wroe said he encourages local businesses to get in touch to see how DCV can help them.
“Our whole mantra, the lens we look through everything, is industry,” he said.
“At the end of the day if someone ... goes into a cafe they’re not seeing ... anyone but that cafe owner so we want to make sure that person is in the very best position to give the very best customer experience.
“I think we’ve got an extremely good track record delivering that.”
Central Goldfields Shire Council voted to join DCV in May this year for a two-year period.
It required an already budgeted financial contribution of $30,000 in year one, and $40,000 in year two and ongoing.
Despite the council’s contribution Mr Wroe said they lean on industry support due to the high-cost of resources like their database.
“We pay for most of it, we just get a top-up from industry to help us offset the cost,” he said.
While the shire is a part of DCV local businesses will get the most out of their partnership.
However, if the shire were to pull out after two years, Mr Wroe said they could maintain these relationships but would lose a level of access.
“We can maintain a partnership outside our network but we’d be very surprised and disappointed if [Central Goldfields Shire Council leaving] eventuated,” he said.
Local businesses can read more at destinationcentralvictoria.com.au or by emailing their team at info@dsctourism.com.au