When coronavirus restrictions ease, Bendigo Tourism will be ready to start economic recovery

City of Greater Bendigo tourism and major events manager Terry Karamaloudis said he expected a stepped recovery to begin when the shutdown ended.

Victoria's state of emergency is set to end on Monday, May 11, with other Australian states already winding back lockdown measures.

"The critical piece information we are looking for is when we can push start button," Mr Karamaloudis said.

"The way the state has managed the virus situation has been very professional. We need to not undo the great work the community has done but we do need to put steps to recovery in place.

"(We expect) the message is to be a stepped recovery, that's okay. We will go out of survival mode into a revival mode and, hopefully, not long after that in to the thriving mode we used to have in Bendigo.

"(Bendigo region) has just come off a year (to December, 2019) where we had 4.5 million visitors, which is a staggering number of people considering Greater Bendigo has (a population) of 120,000.

"We want those days back. We want to see a major events calendar with 100 plus major events in there along with gallery exhibition and theatre performances so we can stimulate the Bendigo region's economy and assist businesses going through a traumatic period."

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Bendigo Tourism hosted a tourism webinar on Friday afternoon with Victoria Tourism Industry Council chief executive Felicia Mariani and Visit Victoria head of regional tourism and strategy presenting alongside Mr Karamaloudis.

Mr Karamaloudis said the webinar was about giving tourism operators and businesses a current perspective on a range of issues specific to tourism and events.

"We've stayed in touch with industry partners and members from a broad cross section of accommodation, hospitality, retail and tourist attraction businesses," he said. "There are a lot of questions around what recovery will look like and what we're working on to ensure it.

"There is a bit of optimism starting to appear, others states have started to lift restrictions, but we need to remember we are in Victoria and the premier has tactical command of what our recovery looks like. How quickly we come out that is up to the state government.

"We are doing everything we can at a local and state level to ensure we are ready to bounce back stronger than ever when recovery starts."

Mr Karamaloudis said council's major events and tourism team had been negotiating more than 20 new events for life beyond lockdown.

"We are working and have 21 new events we are negotiating in range of sectors," he said. "A lot are sport and leisure and we're excited about that because there is strong interest...we just cant tell when they can (come to Bendigo).

"The infrastructure built over many years, the way Bendigo embraces (new events) and how people are treated in restaurants, cafes and bars is all is part of the visitor experience.

"We are just waiting for someone (to give us the green light) but there is a need to balance and to stay focused on the situation in front of us and not give back the gains we have made out of what (Victoria) has been doing for past six weeks."