Bathurst's visitor economy facing a productive summer holiday period

Since November 1, visitors from Sydney and surrounding local government areas have been clear to visit regional NSW and last Friday saw the NSW-Victoria border reopen for the first time since July.

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Abercrombie House owner and local tourism advocate Christopher Morgan said there's been an instant increase in visitation to the Bathurst region since restrictions lifted.

"There were lots of people around last weekend, and I was hearing from many other Central Tablelands destination venues that plenty of people were starting to explore our area," Mr Morgan said.

"The preceding month was very quiet for local tourism operators, and everyone was still wondering what would happen post-lockdown, but fortunately, things have picked up relatively quickly."

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Mr Morgan expects the summer holidays will truly be a boom time for Bathurst's visitor economy, with both the winter and spring school holidays affected by lockdown.

"All of our ticketed activities at Abercrombie House are generating lots of forward interest for summer, and we're looking to open up rooms we haven't included in tours before," he said.

"This will include underground rooms, such as the chambers where the kitchens were, and we're also hoping to increase our barista coffee offerings, host more high teas and expand opportunities for tours.

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"We had tremendous success throughout lockdown with some outside-the-box ideas, such as boxed high teas, and this way of thinking has encouraged us to maintain a creative and opportunistic approach to tourism offerings moving forward."

Bathurst Regional Council tourism and visitor services manager Dan Cove said the Bathurst Visitor Information Centre has seen over 1000 visitors through the door since reopening.

"It hasn't exactly been an explosion of visitors, which is to be expected as we've reopened at an off-peak time, but its been steady and sustained, and there's certainly a lot of interest in upcoming local events, such as the Rockey Gardens and Art festival this weekend," Mr Cove said.

"From the start of December to Easter next year, forward accommodation bookings online have been consistently higher than anything we've seen over the last few years.

"It's been a tough few months for the tourism industry, but heartening to see such a positive rebound."

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