Tourism return welcomed, but more to do

NEW figures show tourism in Ballarat is bouncing back following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tourism Research Australia’s National Visitor Survey for the year ending December 2022 indicated that visitors brought $651 million into the Ballarat economy in 2022.

This is a 47.2 per cent increase compared to 2021 results and beats 2019 figures by 22.9 per cent which still puts the city ahead after accounting for inflation.

Ballarat had just under two million day trip visitors and 732,000 people stay the night.

Although visitor numbers are yet to exceed pre-pandemic levels of more than 3 million, the trend in tourism spending is ahead of forecasts which predicted Ballarat’s visitor economy would not reach 2019 figures until 2024.

“This healthy spend means Ballarat is attracting high yielding visitors who are happy to spend their money, giving local businesses the best opportunity to flourish,” City of Ballarat mayor Cr Des Hudson said.

“People see value in Ballarat, and this is a testament to a resilient and innovative tourism industry and the quality of our events that continue to draw visitors to the region.”

Sovereign Hill CEO Sara Quon said the outdoor museum is working hard to reach pre-pandemic levels and that all tourist venues have a role to play in attracting visitors to the region.

“When we compare the last 12 months verses pre COVID we’re probably at about 80 to 85 per cent visitation and that’s mainly because of international visitors who are slower to return but we anticipate this will increase,” she said.

“In peak periods like school holidays we are back to full pre-COVID numbers.

“We’re really focused on events as a way to generate new interest and expend audiences to give more people a reason to visit Ballarat.

“Going into winter we’ve got Winter Wonderlights which we had nearly 97,000 people through for last year.”

For Kryal Castle head Bart Hamilton, post-pandemic tourism has been a huge success, as the destination changed its business model to multi-day weekend events like the recent Unicorn Festival.

“We hold big events, so we essentially get a lot of people focused on one weekend,” he said.

“We’ve seen a huge rise in our visitor numbers, and we’ve had a lot of people come a stay for multiple nights when previously it’s been a day trip.

“I think weirdly the lockdown in Melbourne opened up regional Victoria for a lot of people as when lockdown lifted it was the only place people could go.”

Mr Hamilton also said the number of repeat visitors to Kryal Castle has increased.

“I think cost of living crisis has also helped as people can’t afford to go to North Queensland or Bali anymore,” he said.

Despite these successes, Ballarat is still not performing as well as other areas.

“While Ballarat’s visitor numbers continue to trend in the right direction, we acknowledge we’re still not quite performing at pre-pandemic levels, nor are we recovering as quickly as our neighbours in Bendigo and Geelong,” said Cr Hudson.

Paul Martino, chair of Ballarat Regional Tourism said the picture is still positive.

“I think that there was a desire to travel within the state post-pandemic,” he said.

“With Geelong particularly looking at December figures, they are on the Surf Coast so I think it’s a little unfair to compare.

“Bendigo in a tourism sense have been sticking to a plan for about 10 years and are showing that being organised stood them in a better stead than us.

“We have ground to make up in how we promote cultural tourism in Ballarat, and I think that momentum can’t come quick enough.

“I think the most important thing is that the level of communication and working together continues to grow as the parties can talk more openly and honestly about how to do things better.

“There’s a lot we are doing well but I think the future of tourism in Ballarat rests on how we collaborate together.”