Tamworth business owners urge public to use Dine and Discover vouchers before they run out

The initiative has provided a much-needed boost to local businesses, and played a major role in the state's post COVID-19 economic recovery.

With $100 worth of vouchers to spend - two for the hospitality industry and two for entertainment and recreation - lots of people have been getting out and about since the program's introduction in March.

The average spend when using the dine and discover vouchers in the Tamworth LGA has been $37.52, and the overall spend has been almost $1.54 million across the 94 registered businesses.

In the Gunnedah LGA there is an average spend of $34.14 and total of $156,028; in Liverpool Plains those figures are $47.12 per use and $77,840; and in Walcha LGA it's $30.43 on average with a $9,282 spend.

Manager of the Pub Group in Tamworth, Craig Power, said the vouchers have had a massive impact over the past few months.

"It's been hugely successful and we've seen a lot of new faces come into our venues, people that probably would never have come into our venues before and tried our food and our service," he said.

According to Mr Power the initiative's true value will become obvious once it ends, because business owners will be able to see whether the new customers return without a voucher.

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"There'll be a percentage that will drop and if it wasn't offered they might not come in again, but I think there'll be a high percentage that actually will," he said.

"I think if we got a 50 per cent return rate on the people that come back because they liked what they got, then it's been a success."

Local pubs may face a rush of people using the remaining vouchers over the coming weeks, with 17,000 dine vouchers still valid in the Tamworth local government area (LGA) - and that's just for those who have already registered.

Just under 60,000 of those vouchers were available to be used in the Tamworth region, but only around 35,000 have been activated so far.

That figure is still much higher than the discover vouchers though, with just over 5,500 being used - which is only about 9.4 per cent of them.

Forum 6 Cinema Tamworth manager Grant Lee said the scheme has been an incredible help for his industry, but is urging people to make the most of it while they can.

"It's done a great job for the cinema, we were really worried when JobKeeper finished and then when the vouchers came out it has actually really boosted a lot more people to come out," he said.

"A lot of people like to leave things until the last minute, so we are hoping that they will use them by the end of the month. So I think it will be very busy."

Mr Lee said the vouchers have been used so commonly at the cinema he has shaped some of the food and ticket deals to maximise their usage.

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