The embattled tourism industry is bouncing back with more people hitting the road.
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New data from Tourism Research Australia revealed regional Victorian spending in January 2021 was up nine per cent and overnight stays were up 10 per cent compared with January 2020 - bucking the national trend of a 12-per cent dip in overnight travel and a 16-per cent compared with 2020.
South-west accommodation providers reported a busy Christmas-New Year period with Warrnambool Best Western Olde Maritime owner Raj Patel revealing he had his best January in his 18 years and February wasn't far behind.
"I've been booked out every Saturday night since the ring of steel came down with this past Saturday the only one that wasn't," he said.
"February was only two per cent down from 2020. Summer is always a big time but a lot of people missed out on get-togethers last year so they're making up for it now."
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The Great Ocean Road felt the effects of the coronavirus pandemic as early as December 2019 as the Asian tourism market dropped significantly.
Port Campbell Best Western Great Ocean Road Motor Inn owner Liz McKenzie said overnight stays to the seaside town were down compared to previous years but travellers were slowly returning.
"It doesn't feel like overnight stays are greater, but I think people are staying here longer," she said. "It's still way down from other years and so much quieter.
"The Christmas tourism period was shorter for us; normally I'm 90 per cent full the week before Christmas and it's busy until Easter but this year it was not at all like that.
"Before Easter, people were coming for weekend trips or a couple of days but since, everything has been down.
"I've been doing this a long time and still can't work out why people travel on a Sunday but they are. The town has had a lot of workers which have kept us ticking us along."
The data found intrastate overnight travel was up three per cent in January 2021 with spending up 17 per cent to $5.3 billion.
Port Fairy's Gum Tree Caravan Park owner Viv McCallum reported their majority of visitors were from across Victoria or people travelling within the south-west.
"The general feedback from our guests was that more were from Victoria and travelling locally," she said.
"People were sceptical about travelling across borders because of fear they would be locked down. We had a good summer though our client base was different without any international travel.
"We're still getting the overnighters but a lot of people are staying longer and choosing Port Fairy as their destination.
"People were choosing Port Fairy and saying they'd normally go overseas or up to Queensland and either couldn't do that or were scared to travel."
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