City visitor centre reopens in time for long weekend tourism surge
MOUNT Gambier tourism related businesses will roll out the welcome mat this long weekend as the city prepares for the biggest influx of visitors for some months.
This weekend marks the start of South Australia’s tourism recovery plan following the sector being crippled by coronavirus restrictions.
While the number of tourists heading to the Blue Lake city is unknown, Mount Gambier’s social media tourism platforms have been trending strongly.
The South Australian Tourism Commission has kick-started a statewide regional welcome back campaign, with dedicated promotional days for specific regions.
The Limestone Coast will feature on press, radio and social platforms next Thursday.
All tourism operators are urged to hold their own opening ceremonies using #WelcomeBackSA to be shared on socials.
With state borders remaining closed to non-essential interstate travellers, it is hoped intrastate tourism will revitalise the embattled sector.
City Council city growth general manager Dr Judy Nagy said the Lady Nelson Visitor and Discovery Centrewas gearing up for an influx of visitors when it reopened tomorrow.
“Our social media has been really busy. I am really pleased people from across South Australia are going to come and visit us,” Dr Nagy said.
“While they may have been here before, we would love them to come back again.”
The council executive foreshadowed the Queen’s Birthday long weekend would be busy.
Asked about the level of accommodation bookings, Dr Nagy said the visitor centre did not have access to that data.
Tourism Mount Gambier chair Ben Deering said the city’s visitor landscape was expecting the biggest arrival of visitors for months.
But he said numbers were unlikely to return to pre-COVID-19 levels for some time.
“It will be a good easing back for the tourism sector, if nothing else, but we would like to see more people the better,” Mr Deering said.
While social distancing measures would be followed, he said the majority of retailers and tourism venues had reopened their doors.
“Really, there are very few things tourists will not have access to,” said
Mr Deering, who is the Centenary Tower caretaker.
But the tourism leader said the iconic tower would remain closed because the space was too cramped to meet social distancing requirements.
Mr Deering said reports within the sector indicated seaside coastal townships such as Robe and Port MacDonnell were fully booked for the weekend.
“There appears to be a real appetite from people in Adelaide to get and out about and visit regional areas,” he said.
Traffic to the southaustralia.com website from intrastate visitors increased by nearly 82pc to over 200,000 visits in the two weeks following the announcement of the easing of restrictions on May 8, with direct leads to tourism operators increasing, up almost 30pc on the same time last year to 42,000.
“We have heard directly from accommodation providers that people are coming back,” Premier Steven Marshall said.
“New data from Airbnb has shown a surge in domestic bookings, particularly in regional areas, with South Australia reporting a significant increase in same-state travel, with bookings up 77pc, compared with the same week last year.
“That’s great news for operators and a massive show of support from fellow South Australians – we have got your back.”
