Matt Hewson
Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine’s (TGGB) annual report, released last week, details a remarkable recovery throughout the industry since the pandemic.
The report revealed gross visitor numbers had increased by 41.8 per cent from 2022 to 2023, jumping from 4.3 million to 6.2 million, with overnight stays increasing by nearly 16 per cent.
But the big number is annual visitor expenditure, which leapt from $1.08 billion to $1.57b, an improvement of over 45 per cent.
But TGGB executive director Tracy Carter said the raw figures did not necessarily tell the entire story.
“The number ($1.57b) is big, and I guess we always focus on yield as a key performance indicator for how tourism is going… but there’s a bit in it to unpack,” Ms Carter said.
“This leap to $1.6 billion sounds amazing, and in some ways it is, but I’ll be really careful because I understand that some of that number is inflationary.
“We also certainly know our operators had a bit of a tough year. The spend in the region was up in a big way, but the cost of doing business increased, so it wasn’t all roses.
“And many hospitality and tourism operators are telling us they’re still having a hard time getting staff who can deliver the level of experience we want to be delivering in the region.”
Ms Carter said the recovery process was still ongoing.
“There was a period of years where businesses were just doing enough to tick over and perhaps… went a bit backwards during that time. So consolidating and feeling like they’re on top of things again is a longer term thing than just ‘the visitors are back’,” she said.
