School holiday visits to Warrnambool's Flagstaff Hill slide

But the result wasn't surprising because the 2022 period had been a record-breaker.

Warrnambool City Council economic development and tourism manager Paul Thompson said the 2022 September holidays were the first since 2019 not impacted by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

"Just as significant, or possibly even more so, was the four-day long weekend falling in the middle weekend of the school holidays which saw record visitor numbers at Flagstaff Hill," he said.

A one-off national holiday was held on September 22, 2022, to mourn the death of Queen Elizabeth II which came on top of the AFL grand final Friday holiday for Victorians, creating the four-day long weekend.

A Warrnambool City Council spokesman said 3434 people visited Flagstaff Hill during the day and 1228 at night from September 19 to October 1, 2023.

This compared to 5303 day and 1438 night visitors in 2022.

But the 2023 figures were back to pre-COVID levels when there were 3033 day visitors and 1570 night visitors in 2019 and 2413 day and 1210 night visitors in 2018.

Cabin bookings at the council-run Surfside Holiday Park were on par with previous years during the term three holidays.

He said camping had dropped about 25 per cent compared with 2022.

Hamilton's Terryl Maddocks was one of the people who booked into the caravan park, where she stayed for nine days to meet with family members from Castlemaine, Ocean Grove and Melbourne.

She said the family gathered at Surfside Holiday Park in 2022 for the first time, returning this year because her parents "really wanted to come back".

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