Coastal town populations triple amid tourism surge

The region’s tourism industry is expected to get a boost from the thousands of people holidaying across Greater Geelong and the Surf Coast.

Four generations of Tiarne Rix's family have been coming to Ocean Grove. Now she comes with her partner Travis and daughter Nellie. Picture: Alan Barber

Thousands of holiday-makers are expected to inject millions into the region’s economy over the festive period.

Caravan parks across the Surf Coast and Bellarine Peninsula are booked out as families and friends visit the region during the week between Christmas and New Year.

This summer marks the first in two years where no Covid restrictions are in place, and comes after much of the 2021-22 holiday season was marred by staff shortages.

Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine chief executive officer Tracy Carter said many coastal towns saw their peak overnight populations triple during this period.

“It really is a critical time in terms of setting businesses up by making up a lot of revenue that sustains them for the rest of the year,” Ms Carter said.

Tiarne Rix has been holidaying at Ocean Grove’s Riverview Family Caravan Park since she was a child, and now camps with her husband Travis and two-year-old daughter Nellie.

The Ballarat family will be joined by Mrs Rix’s parents and extended family members later in the week.

“We are the fourth generation of our family to camp at Riverview,” Mrs Rix said.

“Just the memories (bring us back) – being at a place where we grew up and know lots of families.

“There are lots of people from Ballarat down here. It’s a home away from home.”

Barwon Coast’s Gary McPike said the caravan park was one of several operated by the committee that was booked out over the January school holidays.

“We are at 100 per cent capacity, a lot of people come back year after year – we do get a good turnover of people this time of year,” he said.

Mr McPike said this year was the first since 2019-20 when travel plans had not been interrupted by the Covid pandemic.

“This was the first in the lead-up we’ve been Covid free. Last year Melbourne was in lockdown until the start of November and then we had a massive storm rip through. It closed down our Barwon Heads site for nearly four weeks,” he said.

“We’ve had a hasslefree lead-up this year.”

Ms Carter said while hospitality businesses were still struggling to find staff, a relaunch of the region’s Tourism Jobs Bank had helped fill some gaps.

She said a new app linked to the program was helping to identify those seeking work and matching their skillset with available jobs.

Originally published as Coastal town populations triple amid tourism surge