mmg.com.au

An online travel website has ranked Echuca in the top 10 most popular Victorian tourist destinations for the Christmas and New Year period.

Echuca — and by default Moama — came in ninth overall, putting it ahead of all other Murray River towns, including Mildura and Swan Hill.

The website lastminute.com.au compiled the lists for each state based on the number of rooms booked through its site for the holiday period.

Echuca-Moama Tourism chief executive Pete White said it was a thrill to have Echuca-Moama rated so strongly.

‘‘It’s exciting to see Echuca-Moama in the top 10 for bookings made during the 2012 Christmas to New Year period,’’ he said.

‘‘Needless to say, we’re working in a very competitive environment against destinations that have massive marketing budgets.’’

Mr White put some of the success down to a pre-Christmas advertising and marketing campaign.

‘‘We’re confident that our ‘What we love about Echuca-Moama campaign’ which rolled out in mid-November assisted in achieving this result,’’ he said.

‘‘It was the first of its type in the tourism industry and we had great cut-through in the social media space.’’