SPRING FLOP: Motel ‘skint’ despite school holidays

Accommodation providers are losing out despite soaring interest in Warwick, but say the worst is yet to come.

PLENTY OF ROOM: Warwick’s Centre Point Mid City Motor Inn is one provider saying they’re yet to see a tourist influx. Picture: Eddy Raets

TOURIST interest in Warwick has surged to more than twice its usual rate, but motel owners say they are yet to profit from the spike in demand.

New data from travel giant Wotif revealed the Rose City as Queensland's sixth most searched-for destination, beating out more common tourist hot spots in the Southern Downs and Granite Belt areas.

Despite the increased attention and upcoming school holidays, Comfort Inn Warwick owner Peter Andrews said he was still relying on a busy weekend trade to keep the business going.

"The corporate business has stayed consistent from Monday to Friday, which has been good," Mr Andrews said.

"The weekends have been filling up, there's been 10 or 11 weekends in a row where we've been booked out, but we can't report anything definite on school holidays.

"As far as school holiday bookings go, I've basically got none, but I have seen over this period that people are leaving it pretty late to make bookings."

Centre Point Mid City Motor Inn owner Eddy Raets agreed, hoping ongoing motorsports events and last-minute bookings would pad profit margins enough to last through the quiet summer season.

"We're absolutely skint at the moment, there's really not much happening, though the weekends are starting to fill up a bit," Mr Raets said.

"I'm not looking forward to the summer, it's looking very sparse in forward bookings - if the borders are still closed, we won't be getting much through-traffic either.

"At the moment, it's a bit of a struggle, but not much we can do about it, except keep our fingers crossed."

 

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