Heidi Murphy says Victoria’s tourism sector has every right to feel dudded by the federal government’s billion dollar package to kickstart the aviation and tourism sectors once JobKeeper ends.

The federal government is offering 800,000 half-price airline tickets from April 1 as part of the mammoth tourism support scheme.

There are a dozen destinations covered by the package, with a considerable chunk of those in Queensland (Cairns, The Whitsundays, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast).

“They do realise that Victoria has been the hardest hit out of any of the states, right?” Heidi Murphy asked on Thursday while filling in for Tom Elliott on 3AW Drive.

“They do realise we’ve had the longest lockdowns, the strictest travel rules, the tightest tethers to our homes?

“We are the ones that have had a really, really tough year.”

She said while 2020 was also undoubtedly hard for Queensland, it had one considerable advantage over other states in need of help.

“They are able to take advantage of the captive holiday market of domestic tourism – you and me,” she said.

“We’re not going to be able to go overseas for a holiday, so, you’ll possibly look to move to a warmer area for a beach holiday as winter creeps in down here.

“Where? Queensland. Where these discounted offers are.

“That area will already have plenty of visitors coming to it.”

Click PLAY below to hear Heidi’s editorial