Make the trip.
Because there’s more at stake than fuel.
The fuel crisis has hit us all. But for regional towns who depend heavily on tourism, it’s an emergency.
We’re not going to pretend filling the tank is cheap right now. It isn’t. But before you park the road trip for another year, there’s something worth understanding, something most Australians don’t see from their city centre.
When city visitors stop coming, regional towns don’t just lose revenue. They lose the businesses that make them viable. And once those businesses close, they rarely come back.
We’re asking you to commit to one regional holiday in the next twelve months.
When the time is right, just one trip over a long weekend, a week or whatever you can manage, that takes you through regional towns that need visitors.
Stop for a pastry from the local bakery. Pick up something handmade. Linger over a meal made from local produce. Stay the night. These small acts are what keep a town alive.
When you make that trip, here’s what you’re actually doing:
- Keeping regional businesses viable through a period that’s threatening many of them
- Voting with your wallet for the kind of Australia where small towns still exist and still function
- Putting your holiday dollar somewhere it has a genuine impact, directly into a local economy
- Showing your kids what Australia looks like beyond the capital cities, and what it means to show up for communities that need it
Make Your Pledge
Committed to
Regional Australia
Where Travelers Are Headed
For most regional towns, tourism isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the economy.
A regional café, pub, or guesthouse doesn’t have a head office to absorb a quiet season. It has an owner who also does the books, the cleaning, and the 6am shift. When traffic drops, that owner makes the same calculation every time: is this still worth it?
When enough owners answer no, a town starts to hollow out. The servo goes. The bakery goes. The school loses enrolments. What’s left is a place people used to stop.
~35%
of every visitor dollar is spent in regional areas
~108,000
tourism-related businesses are in regional Australia
~6.7%
of all jobs in regional areas are in tourism, more than double the rate in capital cities
“Fuel is too expensive for a road trip” | “We need to conserve fuel” | “Let’s not drive anywhere”
These sentences, repeated across social media, news segments, and kitchen table conversations, is having consequences most people haven’t thought through.
When Australians stay home, the financial hit doesn’t really fall on fuel companies or travel platforms. It falls on the roadhouse owner in Tibooburra. The motel in Bingara. The bakery in Dunedoo. These are people already living with higher fuel costs than anyone in the cities, only they don’t have the option of simply not driving.
High fuel prices are a problem. But the solution of simply not travelling shifts the cost of that problem from people with choices onto people without them.
A road trip can cost less than a weekend in the city.
You’re not paying city prices:
A room at a regional pub hotel, a counter meal, a meat pie from a bakery that’s been there since the 80s. The cost of a travel day in the country is routinely less than the cost of a city Saturday.
Shorter trips still count
You don’t need two weeks and a full itinerary. A Friday-to-Sunday loop from your nearest city keeps the fuel bill manageable and still puts real money into a community that needs it.
Your dollar goes further there
Spending $200 at a regional pub often has more economic impact than the same $200 spent in the city. It circulates locally. It pays a local wage. It keeps a local business viable.
Fuel prices will fluctuate. But the regional businesses that close during a quiet stretch don’t come back.
The towns are still there. They just need you to show up.
Visit Regional Australia. Pledge it for your next road trip.
Supporting Partners
Project Partners
