Docklands Dollars an overwhelming success

The Docklands Chamber of Commerce’s (DCC’s) initiative to draw visitors back to the precinct and put cash back in the registers of local businesses has proven a huge success, with its Docklands Dollars program attracting strong interest last month.

Within less than two hours of launching the program on March 29, the DCC confirmed that registrations for its April allocation had already been exhausted, resulting in an estimated spend of around $2 million in Docklands during April.

Such was the success, the DCC released a new second round of allocations on April 15, which was registrations exhausted after just 13 minutes. The DCC will soon release a third allocation due to continued demand.

The DCC has partnered with the City of Melbourne and Development Victoria to launch the program which is designed to encourage visitors to stay, eat, buy, play and then redeem a generous portion of the money they spend in Docklands.

The program provides registrants with a $100 rebate for a two-night stay in Docklands. A further $110 rebate is also available across five categories of spending: retail, services, restaurants, attractions and fast food.

With the idea first conceived just over 12 months ago, DCC president Johanna Maxwell told Docklands News that nine months of pressing the council and Development Victoria had truly paid off.

“The DCC fought long and hard to get this program off the ground. At times I’m certain the City of Melbourne and Development Victoria were tired of hearing about our idea to come out of COVID. But we sincerely thank both entities for seeing the potential,” she said •

docklandsdollars.com.au