CROWD CONTROL: Bumper visitor period to stretch accommodation during Games

A GEELONG tourism leader has hinted the city must think outside the square to accommodate the expected 100,000 visitors that will arrive here for the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games.

A coming surge of commercial accommodation rooms across Geelong is unlikely to provide enough space for the influx of visitors predicted for the international sporting event, which is now less than three years away.

Early state government modelling on the Games’ economic impact has predicted Geelong – alongside Ballarat – will have the highest share of the 300,000 visitors that will visit from outside the host cities for the events program.

The state government is yet to investigate in detail how this figure will translate to overnight stays compared to day trips, including from Melbourne.

The number of overnight stays is set to be a significant jump on the region’s usual figures for March, during which Geelong welcomed about 170,000 visitors for the moth during the past two years not affected by COVID (2019 and 2022).

Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine’s (TGGB) latest Tourism Development Plan from 2019 would require about 52 new businesses and 1,059 rooms in urban Geelong by 2027, before factoring in the Games.

TGGB executive director Tracy Carter said conservative estimates would still stretch Geelong’s accommodation to its limits.

“For us, the challenge is to think a little bit laterally about how we go about accommodating those additional visitors.

“We expect there will be things like private holiday homes, Airbnb-type properties [used to accommodate visitors], because it’s a full expectation that commercial accommodation – hotels, motels, apartment complexes – will be fully occupied for the duration of the Games.

“Our job is to increase the yield and the positive impact here, and get more people staying locally.

“We’ll do some things that we’ve probably never done before, like encouraging people to stay with friends and family.”

A shortage of accommodation options has long been identified as a weakness in the city’s tourism offering, but recent developments have offered encouragement for the industry.

A new Holiday Inn at Ryrie Street is expected to check in its first guests around August this year, while the long-awaited adoption of the Central Geelong Framework Plan could pave the way for more large-scale projects in the city’s development pipeline.

Ms Carter said the Games and the coming Geelong Convention and Exhibition Centre, due to open in 2026, would open new markets for the city and she hoped it would catalyse further investment.

TGGB is finalising an updated planning framework – its Sustainable Destination Master Plan – that intends to guide the industry’s growth for the next decade, which is due for release shortly.