East Coast Tasmania tourism: Why region is riding a wave of optimism amid change
Businesses are maturing, internationals are returning and domestics who got their first taste of Tassie during the Covid travel ban have told their friends about us. No wonder there is a buzz about the East Coast.
Tasmania
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Tasmania’s East Coast is riding a wave of optimism amid a summer peak that is exceeding the wildest dreams of even the most jaded tourism operator, leading one hospitality to boss to declare the region is “creating a new culture”.
The Mercury has spoken multiple business owners from St Helens through to Bicheno, all of whom reported packed houses and a growing confidence that the region is shedding its reputation of torpor.
In Bicheno, husband and wife duo Ben and Emelie Fleming, alongside business partner Thom Dahya, are hosting their first full summer at Harvey Vin, formerly known as Overtime Vineyard prior to their purchase.
The vineyard is hosting live music every day from Friday through to January 7, with big names including Lasca Dry and Fergus James.
In the town proper, their cafe, Governors Bicheno, opened in mid-2021, buzzes with activity.
Mr Fleming is also buzzing.
“We moved here six years ago and we were potentially looking down the barrel of, ‘Oh s---, it’s quiet,’ but each year it’s getting busier and busier,” Mr Fleming said.
“One thing I think Bicheno has managed to capture is the community.
“We’ve got local, we’ve got year-round tourism now.
“It’s sick. The town is building. There’s new stock moving into the town each week, bringing better ideas, more money behind them.
“Bicheno is not just a sleepy coastal town anymore, there are really trendy people coming here, wanting to move here.
“Businesses are becoming more hungry because there is more competition in town.
“It’s got a culture here. We are creating a new culture.”
Greg Patmore, general manager of Bicheno Penguin Tours, said bookings until late January were “pretty much chockers” and had been since the week before Christmas.
“We’ve noticed the return of the international backpacker-type casual workers, that’s been really helpful,” he said.
“It’s been noticeable that the Asian market has come back to some degree.”
Led by Governors and a handful of stalwarts such as The Pondering Frog, Little Bay Patisserie and The Sandbar, and complemented by a series of pop-up cafes that mushroom during summer, Bicheno is developing a sturdy cafe culture, Mr Patmore said.
“The cafe culture is really noticeable. Everyone is wandering about town looking in shop windows holding a takeaway coffee,” he said.
“It’s almost a part of the uniform.”
Further north, 42 South Surf School owner Gary Egan, who is based at Scamander, said the school is “fully booked” until February.
“We’ve been flat out, lessons every day,” he said.
It was the Covid pandemic that led to a renaissance of domestic tourism in Tasmania, Mr Egan believes.
“When international travel stopped, a lot of people had Tassie on their bucket list,” he said.
“Then the next wave, they obviously went home and told everyone how amazing Tassie was, and we’re now onto a third wave of mainlanders from every state.
“There’s interstate number plates everywhere.”
Mr Egan, who also owns an accommodation unit at Bicheno, said it was also booked out until the end of summer, a fact he feels mixed emotions towards.
“I like to use it over summer but this year I’m not going to be able to,” he said.
The new wave of tourism, their changing habits and tastes, has helped his surf school evolve and expand, Mr Egan said.
“What’s become really popular is board and wetsuit hire because they’re a hassle to travel with.
“It’s another little string to our bow.”
Further north still, at St Helens, a multimillion-dollar brewery and beer garden extension to Easy Tiger cinema on December 23 and it is already pulling large crowds.
“We got smashed like you wouldn’t believe,” said Jason Unwin, one of half a dozen or so business partners behind the venture.
“We did 18 hour days.
“We have actually been selling out in the cinemas.
“Parents are hoping to send their kids to cinema while they have a drink.”
Mr Unwin said Easy Tiger had the dual benefits of appealing to tourists – it has high visibility from the Tasman Highway – and locals alike, who had had a “really limited offering” for casual social drinks “since the top pub burnt down quite a while ago [2005]”.
“A lot of locals have said they didn’t realise that what we were doing would feel like a facelift for the whole town,” he said.
“People are making noise that this will spur other people on who have an idea for the town.”
Grace Keath, chief executive of East Coast Tourism, said the region’s renaissance could also be attributed to a strong nostalgia factor.
“A lot of people are nostalgic for the East Coast, they spent childhood holidays here and are wanting to come back and have a holiday,” she said.
Ms Keath said that in her estimation, Bicheno aside, the luxury and bespoke accommodation sector was yet to rebound fully to its pre-Covid glory, with bookings tailing off slightly in mid-January where once they would be blacked out until the end of January.
She also believed that the cost of living crisis was having an outsized impact on the region’s wineries.
What the East Coast needed to support its further growth and maturation was a “huge investment in infrastructure,” particularly along the Great Eastern Drive.
“We need that because we are seeing so many people bring their campers and caravans,” Ms Keath said.
She also called on Break o’ Day and Glamorgan-Spring Bay councils to implement parking management plans in St Helens and Bicheno respectively.
“They’re the big towns people flow to in these times and parking gets really, really full,” Ms Keath said.
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