Bathurst summer holiday tourism figures affected by Omicron variant

While there was a great degree of optimism throughout December, the impact of the Omicron variant left its toll not only on the Bathurst tourist sector, but state-wide.

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Bathurst Regional Council tourism and visitor services manager Dan Cove said the summer holiday period was very much a tale of two contrasting months.

"We had December, which was a record-breaking period for tourism in the region; in fact, it was the top-performing month for visitor expenditure since 2018, and the previous month was fourth," Mr Cove said.

"Then Omicron hit, and while January started well, things progressively died off, and while numbers were still good, the Bathurst Visitor Information Centre, was down 25 per cent on visitor numbers in comparison to January 2021."

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Mr Cove said the Bathurst region was anticipating a record-breaking holiday period for visitation, but with the sharp rise in COVID cases causing people to reconsider travel arrangements, there was little that could be helped.

"It didn't meet our expectations, but it had nothing to do with Bathurst and the quality of our visitor experiences, people were understandably being extra cautious about their movements," he said.

"The interest certainly was there, it just wasn't translating into visitors."

Abercrombie House owner Christopher Morgan also noticed a significant drop-off in visitation throughout January, with numbers entering a free-fall as the Omicron variant peaked.

"It was looking really good initially, but when Omicron hit the news, everything stopped, people went home, and everyone in the visitor economy and hospitality industry was left searching for answers," Mr Morgan said.

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"This is the third time in three years the industry has had a peak tourism period impacted by COVID, however this time, it was much tougher for businesses, as they had to stay open and couldn't freeze trade."

Despite a quiet summer, Mr Morgan said forward booking is looking strong in the months ahead.

"There is a feeling the industry will recover once this Omicron crisis calms down, but it's been a trying time mentally for tourism operators who have had to face large ebbs and flows in visitation over the past few months," he said.

Mr Cove said he's also seeing early signs of hope for tourism looking ahead to the autumn holidays.

"We're clearly seeing signs Omicron has peaked, and we're currently planning ahead for autumn programs," he said.

"The Autumn Colours program will be released in the coming days, the Heritage Trades Trail is returning, the NRL game at Carrington Park will return at full capacity and, before all that, we have the Inland Sea of Sound returning, so plenty to look forward to."

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