{"id":536069,"date":"2026-03-12T18:31:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T18:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/536069\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T18:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T18:31:17","slug":"tourism-operators-fear-rising-fuel-prices-will-see-easter-travellers-hit-the-brakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/536069\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourism operators fear rising fuel prices will see Easter travellers hit the brakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Situated on the picturesque Gippsland Lakes, Peels Cruises has operated sightseeing tours on the region’s waterways for four generations.<\/p>\n

And with Easter approaching, the business is gearing up for its busiest time of year.<\/p>\n

But as fuel prices continue to rise, operator Amanda Peel is concerned travellers will stay away.<\/p>\n

“People might want to [travel], but they’ve got to balance whether that extra $20, $30, $50 in fuel can be spread around a little bit further,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully people do still come down here but we certainly understand it’s tough.”<\/p>\n

The Australian Institute of Petrol has found that over the past week, the national average petrol price has risen 17 cents to $1.98 a litre.<\/p>\n

In parts of Victoria, motorists are paying as much as 229.9 cents for a litre of unleaded.<\/p>\n

The uncertainty created by the conflict in the Middle East is the latest blow for the regional tourism industry, following years of fires and floods and the pandemic.<\/p>\n

“Every blow that you have, especially in tourism, just puts you back a bit,” Ms Peel said.<\/p>\n

“So any blow to numbers is really tough. You’ve still got to maintain your boats, you’ve still got to fuel the boats up.”<\/p>\n

She said increased petrol prices would hit her business’s margins and could “be a real problem” if the surge continued.<\/p>\n

Effects to be felt across Victoria<\/p>\n

The pressure on travellers and tourism operators extends beyond Lakes Entrance.<\/p>\n

Australian Tourism Industry Council chief executive Erin McLeod said the effects of higher petrol prices would be felt across regional Victoria.<\/p>\n

“Drive tourism is really the backbone of many regional destinations,” Ms McLeod said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Erin McLeod says the tourism sector was the “last to recover” from global disruptions. (Supplied: Australian Tourism Industry Council)<\/p>\n

“When we see fuel costs rising, that means people are having to make a decision as to what they’re going to do with their travel plans.”<\/p>\n

She said while people would still take holidays, their behaviour could change as a result of higher prices.<\/p>\n

“Our industry is one of the first to be impacted by global matters and often the last to recover as well,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It might not be that they necessarily don’t travel; but what we can see is perhaps shorter trips or they might stay closer to home.”<\/p>\n

Caravan industry noticing change<\/p>\n

Victoria’s caravan industry agreed higher fuel prices would affect tourism.<\/p>\n

But Caravan Industry Victoria chief executive Daniel Salberg said while prices were on travellers’ minds, most people were adjusting their trips rather than cancelling them.<\/p>\n

“Regional tourism thrives upon it [caravans], with 91 per cent of all trips going regional but I think people will just adjust their trips and what they do,” Mr Salberg said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Daniel Sahlberg says caravanners are organising shorter trips, closer to home, due to rising fuel prices. (Supplied: Caravan Industry Victoria)<\/p>\n

“The summer period is the highest, so it makes up about 60 per cent over the Christmas period, followed by about 38 per cent over the Easter period.<\/p>\n

“People are doing more trips, but shorter trips, so within two hours of their current locations or their home location seems to be the norm now,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Situated on the picturesque Gippsland Lakes, Peels Cruises has operated sightseeing tours on the region’s waterways for four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,116015,265907,265908,265904,187151,265905,257918,27484,265906],"class_list":["post-536069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-caravans","tag-diesel-price","tag-easter-travel","tag-fuel-price","tag-gas-price","tag-iran-petrol-price-impact","tag-middle-east-war","tag-regional-victoria","tag-victoria-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}