Anglesea ready to welcome back Melburnians

WITH the “ring of steel” no more, Melburnians can now visit their favourite spots in regional Victoria for the first time in months, and the effects are already being felt in places such as Anglesea.

Traders in the town on the Great Ocean Road are reporting an immediate influx of visitors as well as bookings for the days and weeks ahead.

Speaking about 16 hours after the travel restrictions were lifted, Business and Tourism Anglesea president and Great Ocean Road Resort operator Damien Cerantonio said some Melburnians had made the trip to Anglesea at the first opportunity.

“I went past the beaches before and there were people all along the beaches, and we had people calling up yesterday (Sunday) wanting to arrive at 1am or 2am last night (Monday).

“The last 24 hours have seen bookings keep on coming through. We’re booked out tonight (Monday), tomorrow night (Tuesday), pretty much every weekend prior to Christmas,
and the bookings after Christmas keep on coming.

“But it’s good to see, we’re really getting a mini-Christmas before Christmas, and bookings with a bit more length of stay; three- or four-night bookings.

“That’s what we want. We want them to spend money in the cafes and restaurants around town, in the surf shops – there’s plenty of things to see and do around Anglesea – so it’s all about trying to get people to spend that extra couple of nights in town.”

Corinne Nigro from Anglesea News and Lotto said Monday had been busy but not “ridiculous”.

‘There’s definitely a lot of new faces around, a lot of cars streaming through.

“There’s still school holidays and VCE exams to go, but once they’re done, we will be really busy.”

He said Anglesea traders were in discussions with the Surf Coast Shire to get COVID safety officers deployed to the shopping strip to help manage the expected crowds.

“Last time, the queues were ridiculous, so we obviously had to control the number of people going into shops.”

Restrictions are set to ease further on November 23, and Mr Cerantonio said the mood in Anglesea was optimistic heading into summer.

“I think everyone’s excited now, I think we’ve all been waiting for this day to come and I think the community is really ready to welcome back Melburnians, which is really nice.”

Mrs Nigro agreed.

“I think the attitude’s changed overall – there was a little bit of angst about people that were sneaking down, which is probably understandable – but now it’s ‘welcome back’,” she said.

“We’re definitely looking forward to people coming back and bringing their empty Eskies and full wallets.”