‘Kick in the teeth’: Kiama is open for business, but its customers are in lockdown

It was meant to be a top winter weekend in the holiday town of Kiama, with festivals to cap two weeks of busy winter holidaymakers filling the streets and vacation rentals.

Instead, the winter school holidays have been a “kick in the teeth”, said Cathryn Lyall, board member of the Kiama District Business Chamber.

Business is very quiet in Kiama and the south coast which relies on visitors from Sydney. Credit: James Brickwood

“It’s dead, it is like the worst two weeks of last year.”

Kiama isn’t included in Sydney’s lockdown. But its biggest source of business is: people from the Greater Sydney metropolitan area, including neighbouring Shellharbour, are stuck at home.

Many local shops are closed for lack of business. “Everyone’s gone. Everyone has gone to restricted hours,” said Ms Lyall.

The streets are empty, the Readers’ and Youth festivals are postponed, and the usually crowded parking lots near the town’s two famous blowholes are empty enough for learner drivers.

Last July was a high point for winter tourism on the South Coast of NSW as Sydney residents busted out after the first lockdown. This year, it is the worst on record and most say there is little chance of recovery for months.

According to Kiama mayor Mark Honey, about 60 per cent of reservations for accommodation in its five sites offering cabins, camping sites and caravans had been cancelled.

It is the same story with holiday rentals.

Cathryn Lyall from the Kiama District Business Chamber with Kiama mayor Mark Honey.Credit: James Brickwood

Ryan Stalgis, a sales agent with First National Coast and County, said 95 per cent of the company’s holiday rentals had been cancelled. Only two or three out of 50 were booked to visitors from NSW’s west or the ACT.

Craig McIntosh, the owner of South Coast holiday rental company, The Holidays Collection, said about 400 bookings had been postponed or cancelled since the outbreak began last month. About half of those properties are in Kiama, Gerroa and Gerringong.

Some locals were trying to attract visitors from areas unaffected by the lockdown, he said.

“These areas are almost insignificant compared to the Sydney market. It is a bucket of five million all itching to go somewhere for the weekend. You can beg, plead and promote, but if the Sydney market is closed you are pretty much buggered.”

In a normal year, Mr McIntosh said they would get a lot of winter weekend bookings. But business had dropped 80 to 90 per cent, starting during the eastern suburbs lockdown in June, and it had only worsened since.

“The pendulum has swung from ridiculously positive to zero. As much money as I made last July, I will lose this year,” he said.

With the duration of the current lockdown uncertain, it was hard to have confidence in the future or plan. “I don’t want to make a decision to reduce staff and overheads, but I just don’t know if it will bounce back. We will just have to wear the loss,” said Mr McIntosh.

Kiama’s shops are nowhere near as busy as they are usually in the winter school holidays. Although the town and its surrounding beaches at Gerroa and Gerringong are not included in greater Sydney lockdown, about 90 per cent of its visitors are. Credit: James Brickwood

Cr Honey says this lockdown has had a more crippling impact than last year’s. When the state borders were closed in 2020, Kiama attracted visitors from NSW’s regions. This time, visitors who could travel were going north or west - anywhere but near Sydney.

Day-trippers from Shellharbour, the neighbouring council, generate the most income for Kiama. But with Shellharbour in lockdown, they’re staying home, too.

One thing that has been booming is the price of houses. Although sales activity has slowed because buyers are unable to visit properties, the prices of properties at Gerroa and Gerringong had seen the biggest percentage increases in the past few months, said Mr Stalgis.

In the past year, he has sold five comparable waterfront properties on the Gerroa waterfront with each selling, on average, for about $500,000 more than the last one.

In a flat market, he said, they would have all sold for about the same amount. For example, a house he sold for $5.26 million last month sold for about a million more than a comparable property only a few doors away that sold last September.

Stay across the most crucial developments related to the pandemic with the Coronavirus Update. Sign up to receive the weekly newsletter.