Two Warrnambool traders, Max Taylor from clothing shop Taylors Surfodesy and Lisa Pitkethly from cafe and gourmet food store Darriwill Farm, were united in their belief the public holiday would be bad for business.

“It’s a joke,” Mr Taylor said. 

“We won’t be having staff in, we’ll just work on our own.” 

Ms Pitkethly said her shop would be shutting its doors all day Friday and closing earlier than usual on Saturday, at 2pm. 

She said last year on the public holiday they only saw half the business they would normally see on a Friday, and high staff wages were difficult to manage.

Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village service manager Nicholas O’Callaghan said the number of tourists visiting Warrnambool had been up during the school holiday period.

He expected the long weekend coinciding with the end of the school holiday period would be a good thing.

“We’ve just upped staffing levels over these school holidays to meet demand,” Mr O’Callaghan said.

“We have a lot of people coming through at the moment. 

“It is a long weekend and all our long weekends are busy.”

In Port Fairy, business operators were predicting another busy grand final long weekend.

Port Fairy Visitor Information Centre tourism officer Sharon Parker said it looked promising.

“We’re expecting a good weekend like last year,” Mrs Parker said. 

Langley’s Port Fairy Accommodation Booking Service co-owner Pauline Davies expects their 60 properties to be at capacity. 

“It’s fantastic for tourism,” Ms Davies said. 

“They come away for the weekend with the intention of watching the grand final.

“When they call to book, they’re asking how big the screen is on the TV in the property.”

She said while bookings came in quickly last year after the holiday was announced, people were prepared and booked earlier this year. 

South West Coast MP Roma Britnell said the public holiday should be scrapped or confined to Melbourne because it was bad for south-west businesses.