As more than 1,500 participants prepare to engage in 11 different sports over four days, many businesses are looking forward to the timely injection the students will bring to the local economy.

President of the Bathurst Business Chamber, Tammy Middleton said while other areas may be struggling to attract visitors during the winter months, hosting the university games will be beneficial for the town.

“I think this is a great opportunity to showcase the best parts of Bathurst,” she said

“I’m sure a lot of businesses will benefit from the influx of people.”

Already local accommodation owners are seeing the benefits of hosting the games with seven

of the 12 hotels on the Bathurst Visitor Information Centre’s availability list registering no rooms left between July 5-8.

Scott McAllister from the Knickerbocker Hotel said all of his rooms were booked out months ago after one single phone call.

“About two months ago we got a phone call from a person at the University of Canberra asking our prices and if we could sleep 45 people,” he said.

“They then said they’d have the lot.

“It is the first time since I’ve took over the hotel in 2003 that it has taken just one phone call to book out the entire place.”

Mr McAllister added he was pleased to have one university staying at the hotel just in

case anything goes wrong during the games.

“I think everything will be fine [during the games] but if something does happen it means we have to contact just one person from the university,” he said.

“With 1,500 university students in Bathurst, things should be very interesting depending on what goes on.”