Regional visitor volume heads upwards

THE number of people visiting Ballarat has increased by about half-a-million, year-on-year, according to statistics released by Tourism Research Australia.

Between December 2018 and December 2019 over 3.35 million people visited the region.

City of Ballarat mayor Cr Ben Taylor said the increase showed the city’s tourism and events marketing was working well.

“These results demonstrate that the investment into the visitor economy was the right strategy and is testament to the efforts of both Ballarat Regional Tourism and council,” he said.

The increase in numbers were lifted by new and returning major events like the Split Milk music festival which had 30,000 attendees, and the Begonia Festival that saw 60,000 people flock to the Botanic Gardens – 33 per cent of which were from out of the region.

“These events, coupled with our world-class attractions such as Sovereign Hill, the Ballarat Wildlife Park and Creswick Woollen Mills also saw our international visitor nights grow” Cr Taylor said.

A statement released by council said the 2019 overall visitor numbers compared favourably with other regions like Geelong and Bendigo.

However, some old problems persisted, with both those regions making the top-50 for overnight stays nation-wide, while Ballarat was not on that list.

With data on the impacts of COVID-19 on the city’s tourism industry yet to be released, Cr Taylor said the 2019 figures would be used to measure how well recovery was going, when it got underway.

“We will have a lot of work to do to get back to the visitor numbers of 2019, but we have a strong product offering, and a hard-working tourism and hospitality sector ready to work with us to reignite the visitor experience that is Ballarat,” he said.