Warrnambool’s May Racing Carnival is expected to pump more than $13 million into the south-west’s economy next week.
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More than 30,000 people are tipped to converge on the course for the famous three-day event, with many of those visiting from Victoria and around Australia.
Warrnambool City Council's visitor economy manager David McMahon said the event was integral to the south-west. "From a visitor economy point of view the May Racing Carnival remains by far our most important event in delivering direct economic impact," he said.
Mr McMahon said accommodation options were “all but full” and a partnership between the racing club and visitor information centre to link people to private rentals had been successful.
This year is the second of a three-year economic impact survey which the racing club and council commissioned with consultancy firm IER.
The survey found that last year’s event generated $13 million, $10.6 million of which was spent in the city.
"The numbers speak for themselves that this is an event that brings new money to Warrnambool,” he said.
More than half the punters were from Victoria, 17.1 per cent from interstate and 30 per cent from Warrnambool.
Punters attended, on average, 2.18 days and were satisfied with the experience, giving it 9.4 out of 10.
The event generated almost 26,200 visitor nights in Warrnambool and 10,600 nights in other Victorian locations.
With fine weather forecast, Warrnambool Racing Club chief executive officer Peter Downs hopes attendance for the carnival could surpass last year’s record-breaking crowd numbers.
Attendance across the three days in 2017 was 31,500, up from 21,000 in 2014.
“It would be really nice if we’re at that level or greater this year,” Mr Downs said.
Pre-paid packages were popular with patrons. “Package sales are up on last year. Last year was a record in our package sales and we’ve improved on that again so that’s great.”
He said 600 women would attend the Ladies Luncheon on Tuesday and the Colts and Fillies marquee on Thursday was a sell out.
The package was expanded from 200 people last year to 300 this year and he said they could have sold another 50 to 100 tickets in the past fortnight. “That’s been a really big positive for us to offer something different on race day. It’s something I’ve been really keen to explore over the years.
“We’ve got a great membership but we were missing that younger age category so having something that appeals to the younger demographic, as well the regular race goer, is very important for the racing club to grow in the future.”
He said this year there would be separate entrances for members, general admission and owners, and pay pass technology would enable a greater flow of traffic through the main gates.