Charlotte Varcoe
AN estimated 40,000 visitors are set to travel through Mount Gambier/Berrin this week with the state’s Gather Round kicking off.
The City of Mount Gambier is estimated to have a large number of visitors stop over in the Blue Lake City with many retailers reporting customers were on their way to the city.
It comes following the Limestone Coast Local Government Association’s (LCLGA) hashtag initiative #visitlimestonecoast increasing in use on social media by 97 per cent from the previous year.
According to the South Australian Tourism Commission, the Limestone Coast is the top performing region on the popular photo sharing application Instagram with the hashtag being shared more than 5000 times.
The Limestone Coast recorded 727,000 total domestic overnight visitors in 2023 with a total of 763,000 visitors.
There were also a recorded 800,000 domestic day trips and more than 1.8 million domestic overnight visitors.
The Limestone Coast recorded the second most overnight visits as well as the second most amount of total visitors.
The total expenditure for the region was also recorded at $520m.
LCLGA president and City of Mount Gambier mayor Lynette Martin welcomed the increase in both visitors for the Gather Round and the increased usage of the hashtag.
Ms Martin said the hashtag was an “interesting statistic” with it being part of the Destination Development Strategy of the LCLGA.
“This sort of exposure of the Limestone Coast region can only assist in the promotion of the region to a broad audience and hopefully translate to great visitation to our region,” Ms Martin said.
“The flow on effect of social media posts which is then reshared by corporations such as the tourism commission and other South Australian media channels has an extremely large potential audience.”
She said by the exposure shown for the region through the hashtag it enabled visitors to be exposed to the region’s unique attractions.
“The more we can promote and to a wider audience it hopefully attracts people to visit and see for themselves and brings that economic benefit to the Limestone Coast,” she said.
“The hashtag statistics is quite astounding and although I do not know how this is measured it really has to assist in getting greater visitation to the Limestone Coast region.”
She said it was important not to underestimate the tourism or the visitation from the eastern states especially with events such as the Gather Round.
“We are hoping people will stay a couple of nights and even if they do not they are still passing through and then will drive through the Limestone Coast,” she said.
“They will realise what a wonderful and unique region we have here and hopefully it will equate to them coming back and staying for a longer period of time in the future.”
She said she believed although it was unfortunate Mount Gambier/Berrin was unsuccessful in securing a Gather Round match this year, observing the movement through the Blue Lake City’s main streets it was clear visitors were still coming to the area.
“We are certainly being visited by many people as they travel through from the eastern states,” she said.
“Hopefully this does equate to an economic benefit to not only our city but also the region and we can never underestimate the value of this visitation and the exposure and economic benefits we get out of this.”
She said alongside school holidays in the eastern states and Mount Gambier/Berrin’s close proximity to the Victorian border it was a “perfect destination” for people travelling through to Adelaide.
“Retailers have been speaking to customers and are hearing stories of people travelling to Gather Round,” she said.
