Indigo Shire Mayor Jenny O'Connor says as the Melbourne lockdown has prevented tourism to the regions for the Queen's birthday long weekend, another opportunity should be "promoted" on AFL Grand Final Friday for those "not going to the footy".
"The Queens birthday weekend is a big weekend usually for tourism in our area and of course with lockdown that's not going to happen because most of our visitors do come from Melbourne," she told Sky News.
"I guess I've been thinking about what else could help and it occurred to me potentially the grand final day in September which has a Friday as a public holiday could also be - for those that aren't going to footy - could be a great opportunity to visit the regions and maybe we should be promoting that."
Ms O'Connor also said in her region of the Indigo Shire towns had their tourism market, a market they are almost "entirely dependent" on, "decimated" last year due to the fire season, COVID-19 and the Ring of Steel restrictions preventing Melburnians from visiting.