Tourists are flocking to the south-west during the school holidays, delighting business owners as the tourism industry continues to recover after the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.
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Raj Patel, owner of the Best Western Motel, has been thrilled with the increase in occupancy and says he's been 90 per cent full for the past two weeks.
"It's been great - the motel's been almost fully booked last week and this week, so I've had a really great and busy school holidays," Mr Patel said.
"The main reason is because people can't go interstate and a lot of people mention during our chats in the bar, restaurant or check-in say 'we were supposed to go to Queensland' or 'we were supposed to go to Sydney but we couldn't so we're here instead'. It's busy because people can't go to the places that they wanted to.
"Since they can't go to the places they had booked before the red zones came in, they've decided to do the Great Ocean Road, Warrnambool and other regional areas, which is great."
Brian Page from BIG 4 Warrnambool Figtree Holiday Park says the accommodation venue has been consistently full.
"We're probably about 90 per cent full. We're full with cabins, we have travellers here from all different areas and sites are pretty busy as well," Mr Page said.
"It's been pretty consistent over the last couple of weeks. The majority of them will head home after the holidays though as they have young kids who need to go back to school, but it's been a really great school holidays so far and everybody seems to be enjoying themselves."
Warrnambool mayor Vicki Jellie says the increase can be seen across the city. "Its been great - I know Melbourne has come out of lockdown and regional areas have been open for a while, but I feel personally that there has been a lot more people around school holidays this last week," Cr Jellie said.
"There are people coming for a couple of days or even longer which is just great and we had some sunny weather last week too. They're coming down to see whales, to the foreshore, playgrounds and all those sorts of things which is a great result for the region.
"I'm seeing cars back in the motels and things like that. The city has a lot of people around wherever you look, even though it's winter. It's great that people have come out and about."
A Moyne Shire Council spokeswoman said there'd been a similar boost in Port Fairy due to "COVID-19 outbreaks interstate".
"Port Fairy and region has had a strong day trip visitation and short stays over the school holiday period."
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