SA regional tourism operators take record school holiday bookings
A boom in intrastate travel looks set to continue into the summer as South Australia’s regional tourist operators reap the benefits of continued border bans and lockdowns.
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Regional South Australia is in the midst of a domestic tourist boom, with record booking numbers from the school holidays looking set to continue into summer.
Border closures and a lack of international flights have forced South Australians to embrace holidaying at home, providing something of a silver lining to the Covid lockdown for accommodation operators.
Discovery Parks, which operates a number of caravan parks across the state, says winter numbers are up 40 per cent on last year and predicted summer to be equally strong.
It stands in stark contrast to city accommodation providers who have been hit hard by the dearth of interstate and overseas tourists during the pandemic.
In the Eyre Peninsula holiday town of Coffin Bay, 40km west of Port Lincoln, the summer rush has already started with accommodation booked almost solid across Christmas and into January.
Coffin Bay Holiday Rentals manager Margie Haines said bookings over summer had “gone crazy”. “We’ve never been so busy,” Ms Haines said. “We’re probably twice as busy as we would have been at this time last year.”
She said that even November, traditionally a quiet month for the beachside town famous for its fishing and oysters, was looking like it could sell out.
“There is still some accommodation in November but anyone looking to travel in the week after Christmas or the first week of the New Year could be disappointed. There’s virtually nothing around that time.”
Ms Haines said if there was a silver lining in the Covid travel restrictions could be that South Australians began holidaying like they did in the days before discount interstate and overseas flights.
“This virus is a hideous thing, but it’s interesting in the way that it’s made people think differently about how they are going to holiday,” she said.
Up the road at Fowlers Bay Simone Keogh, who runs EP Cruises with husband Rod, said they were finally back to one whale watching cruise a day after doubling their excursions to cope with demand.
“The school holidays were chaos,” Ms Keogh said. “We’ve had a steady flow of South Australians coming through, and a lot of people from the Eyre Peninsula too.”
Ms Keogh said EP Tours had been diversifying its offerings to cater for a more local clientele, with the company taking advantage of government discounts on charter-boat licence fees to take people fishing on slow whale days.
“We’ve been modifying our tours to suit,” she said. “It’s been a very slow whale season, but everyone’s been happy. We always find something great for them to do.”
And with Aussies mostly banned from travelling overseas (and Qantas chief Alan Joyce predicting it will be at least a year before that changes) people are embracing a holiday from their past – caravanning.
Caravan sales booming across the state, with retailers reporting a flurry of sales since the Covid lockdown was announced and park operators reporting huge numbers.
Noel Faggotter, who established Noel’s Caravans in 1974, said he couldn’t remember a time when caravans were more popular.
“I’ll put it to you this way,” Mr Faggotter said. “I normally have 130 to 160 caravans in stock, and I’m down to 75.”
He said he believed people had lost trust in overseas travel, and it could be some time before it returned.
“There’s definitely a bit of fear there,” Mr Faggotter said. “Mainly a fear of catching something on the plane itself.”
Mr Faggotter said anyone considering caravanning over summer had “better get on with it” if they hadn’t yet purchased a van. And he encouraged anyone still on the fence to give it a go.
“It is such a sensational lifestyle,” he said.
“Once people discover it they’ll want to do it more. The caravans of today are a lot better than the caravans of yesteryear. You’re staying in a luxury, five-star room every night.”
SA Tourism Commission chief executive Rodney Harrex said it was true that there were two distinct tourism markets within South Australia at the moment.
“The city is certainly a challenge because there’s no corporate travel, not interstate travel,” Mr Harrex said. “But regions are going strong, and the last school holidays were very strong. I am hearing that bookings over Christmas are also pretty solid and the level of traffic coming though SouthAustralia.com is phenomenal.”
Mr Harrex said South Australian’s embracing their own state could be one of the silver lining to the coronavirus crisis.
“The opportunity with Covid is that it’s a chance to showcase South Australia to South Australians, and South Aussies have really stepped up,” he said.
Grant Wilckens, CEO and co-founder of the Discovery Parks group, agreed with Mr Harrex that regional South Australia was the star performer for 2020.
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Mr Wilckens said booking across Discovery’s parks in South Australia over the winter period were up around 40 per cent.
“Obviously that’s coming off a low base as winter isn’t traditionally our peak period, but it’s still an outstanding result,” he said.
“There have been hot spots, like the Barossa and Clare and the Riverland, but really the whole of regional SA has been good.”
Mr Wilckens said the realisation that this Christmas period probably wouldn’t include a ski trip to Japan or holiday to Queensland was driving strong local bookings across summer.
“Bookings are really strong over Christmas and into January, and we’re even seeing really strong bookings in less traditional places that are further away, such as Eyre Peninsula,” he said.
Mr Wilckens, who also sits on the board of the SATC, agreed that it was the city that was suffering from a lack of tourists.
“It’s really going to take some creative thinking to get people back into the city,” he said.
Premier Steven Marshall said it was “great to see that South Australians are throwing their support behind the local tourism industry and booking out holiday accommodation well ahead of the normal summer booking period”.
“This summer will be different for many families and I genuinely believe that many of us will take a quiet moment to really appreciate what we have here in South Australia.
“Some of SA’s most popular tourism destinations are already booked out this summer and it is wonderful news for our tourism operators who have really been hit hard during this pandemic.”