NSW holiday ‘mini boom’ gives accom providers more bang for their buck

It is possible there is a silver lining to COVID-19. Accom providers in regional NSW holiday hotspots: the Blue Mountains, Port Macquarie, Orange, Mudgee, Hunter Valley and the Shoalhaven, have reported a school holiday ‘mini boom’, according to Tourism Accommodation Australia.

The association’s NSW CEO Michael Johnson said the surge in domestic tourism had been a “shot in the arm” for many struggling accommodation hotels, whom are reporting visitor numbers similar to the busy Christmas holidays.

The boom comes off the back of a killer COVID-19 pandemic, devastating bushfires and crippling drought.

Michael said it was good to see NSW residents supporting their own.

“With interstate and international travel disrupted it’s pretty clear the recovery in NSW will depend heavily on intra-state travellers.”

Espen Harvitz, owner of The Oriana, an upmarket 50-room motel in Orange, said occupancy during the two weeks of the school holidays was 90 percent compared to 75 percent this time last year. The majority of guests were Sydney-siders with the remainder coming entirely from NSW.

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”27469″ align=”right”]Espen told Accom News that Jobkeeper was “a bit of luck for us”. He was able to retain his chef and management team plus 15 staff so the motel could stay open during COVID-19. While the restaurant was closed during the height of the lockdown restrictions, the kitchen still did room service. So when restrictions lifted, they “were ready to go”.

Espen said his motel was usually busy year-round: mid-week it’s the corporate market and the weekends leisure.

“During COVID people are taking road trips, so mid-week stays have been leisure as well as corporate,” he says.

Espen views it as a positive if the borders remain closed.

“Here we are not at all dependent on international (guests), so in normal times we have some international but very little – it’s not like the Hunter Valley or the Blue Mountains where they have a huge percentage of international guests.”

Renee Guillien, group marketing, sales and revenue manager at 5-star Lilianfels Blue Mountains Resort & Spa, said school holiday occupancy had been “relatively high”. Guests were overwhelmingly from Sydney and surrounds staying on average 2.5 nights.

According to Renee, the winter school holidays were always busy but this year the resort was seeing a higher volume of last-minute bookings and significantly more restaurant bookings in advance.

“Our rate of enquiry is definitely higher,” she says.

The group of five properties: Lilianfels, Echoes, Hydro Majestic and Parklands (Blue Mountains) and The Convent (Hunter Valley) closed for several months during COVID-19 immediately following a horrific bushfire season.

“It was and still is unprecedented,” says Renee.

“Many accommodation operators, such as ourselves, have been able to make it across and reopen, some have not.

“How this effects the region long term remains to be seen. It is a wonderfully diverse community and region and we need diverse product for the region to keep attracting diverse guests to enjoy our wonderful mountains.”

Meanwhile, other regional areas of Australia have been doing it tougher. Stephen Schwer is a representative of Birdsville Tourist Park in outback Queensland, which has onsite cabins and camping. He said school holiday occupancy was down 17 percent compared to last year.

The park experienced a surge in intra-state travel, given the borders did not partially open until 10 July. Most of their guests were Queenslanders, whereas usually Queensland residents make up only one-third of their visitor market mix.

“Our business has lost an estimated $200,000 in revenue so far this year directly related to the pandemic.”

According to Stephen, it has been one of the most unstable and fiscally difficult times experienced by this generation, way surpassing the GFC, SARS, 9/11 and the pilots’ strikes.

“Recovery, in my opinion, will be slow, difficult, and fraught with false starts due to periodic outbreaks of COVID-19 in different areas. We will need to continue to pivot, innovate, adapt and evolve.”