By Luke Voogt
Geelong caravan bookings have returned to pre-COVID levels despite a decrease in events that normally drive local tourism in the autumn school holidays.
“Obviously it’s a huge improvement on last year,” Barwon River Holiday Park manager Kathryn Garrow told the Independent.
Booking for the school holidays at the Belmont caravan park were similar to the same time in 2019, according to Ms Garrow, despite comparatively less public events in coming weeks due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“Normally these holidays are quite event-dependent but that hasn’t seemed to have affected bookings,” she said.
“We seem to be quite steadily booked throughout the holidays even without these events.”
“The rest of the holidays [other than Easter] can be dependent on if anything is on in Geelong, but we have definitely seen an increase for the remainder of the holidays.
“Although there is still room for more bookings.”
Ms Garrow believed the recent easing of restrictions and federal government-subsidised half-price flights into Avalon Airport played a role in the booking figures.
“It looks like people just want to get out and about and have some family, time so they’re coming regardless,” she added.
Tourism Greater Geelong and The Bellarine executive director Brett Ince said bookings were up across the region’s caravan parks.
“We’re definitely hearing that there’s positivity from the caravan park sector.
“There’s a lot of families and groups that want to reconnect and travel. The style of a caravan park or holiday park is a really good offering for those visitors.”
While events had decreased, the recent Victoria Police and Emergency Services Games and this weekend’s Ironman 70.3 triathlon helped to offset this, Mr Ince said.
But local hotels were still suffering from a lack of mid-week and business travel, he admitted.
“In a normal year you would see business travel with colleagues coming in to meet each other or for conferences,” he said.
“The area that is really important for us to grow is that mid-week travel. That’s what we’re certainly working quite hard to drive.”
Tourism Greater Geelong and The Bellarine would work to promote Geelong’s cafes, restaurants, wineries and various unique experiences to help increase this, Mr Ince said.
Local caravan sellers are also reaping the benefits of increased domestic travel, according to Prestige Jayco general manager Tony Spence.
Sales had increased at the company’s Newcomb site, he said.
“People can’t go overseas anymore, so more people are considering a holiday in regional Australia, which is fabulous for Australian tourism, and Geelong tourism.
“We are getting a lot of first-time buyers who have never thought about caravanning before, which is great – it’s on their radar now.”
