‘Growing sense of optimism’ for Ballarat tourist numbers

Sovereign Hill recorded between 4000 and 5000 visitors on the busiest day of the holidays. But tourism stakeholders say there’s room for improvement.

Sovereign Hill visitors ride the carriage through town.

Despite room for improvement, there is a “growing sense of optimism” about Ballarat’s tourism sector, which has been dogged by Covid restrictions for two years.

Ballarat Regional Tourism chair Paul Martino said recent events had done well for the city, though there was more to be done long-term.

“Helped by some really good weather there’s been some great experiences,” he said.

“The general feeling we have at the moment is in some cases we can sell the weekends twice over – Adelaide Footy Club couldn’t get into Ballarat for the footy game, for example.

“Also on the back of that the news about the Commonwealth Games, on a more macro level we’ve got a more growing sense of optimism than there might have been three, four months ago.”

Nevertheless, Mr Martino said mid-week presented challenges to the sector and suggested one focus of improvement might be corporate visitation.

“The other challenge that’s not new to anybody,” he said, “is businesses’ lack of staff and probably needing a break, so there are some long weekends where businesses are closed on a Monday and tourists can’t find somewhere to eat.

“I’m very sympathetic to businesses that need a break, but we’ve got to try and get the mix right between having things open when people are here and giving hard-earned business operators time for a rest.

“There’s momentum in visitation – that’s a strong feeling that’s coming through – but we've got to try and make this not a two-day-a-week experience because accommodation’s got seven nights to sell.”

Sovereign Hill head of external engagement Mark Hemetsberger said demand at the attraction returned to “really strong and positive levels” over the Easter weekend, with between 4000 and 5000 visitors on the busiest day.

He said because of Covid, it was difficult to benchmark specific periods and all the business could do was adapt to external circumstances.

“Everything is predicated on a single thing, and that is that demand is stable,” Mr Hemetsberger said.

“Once demand becomes unstable, as it’s been for the last two years, it becomes virtually impossible – there is no real definition of what’s good, what’s bad.

“We are still a long way from where we need to be, that’s the bottom line. We’re seeing signs of recovery, but we still need to see that on a more sustained basis.”

At the moment Sovereign Hill is open six days a week outside of school holidays, on Mondays only for schools.