Eastern States visitors drive up tourism numbers as region looks to rebound

The school holidays proved to be a busy time for Mid West tourism businesses, providing much-needed relief for a region impacted by COVID and cyclone Seroja in recent years. Kalbarri in particular enjoyed a fruitful holiday season, with higher visitor numbers reported across the board. Teresa Delane, park manager of the Kalbarri Red Bluff Tourist Park, said: “We’ve been extremely busy, we’re just under the pump at the moment. “We’ve had a lot of travellers who have come over from the Eastern States and they can’t get in anywhere. We are trying to squeeze them in when we can. “We’ve had lots of drive-ins, the phones have just been ringing off the hook.” Kalbarri Edge Resort assistant manager Fizzy Niyaz expressed a similar sentiment. “We’ve been pretty busy I’d say we’re as good as pre-COVID levels. “We haven’t been affected by flight cancellations a lot of our customers have been drive-ins. “We’re booked up pretty much through until October.” Port Gregory Caravan Park also reported they were fully booked. Cameron Williams, owner operator for Midwest Adventure Tours, has an even more optimistic outlook. “For the wildflower season I’m fully booked out, it’s way up compared to last year. “With all the closures lifted, a lot of intrastate people are going elsewhere and I’ve got a lot more people from over east replacing them in droves. “For me personally the way things are looking at the moment I think business it’s actually better than before COVID started.” The local wildflower season kicks off in late July or early August. Mr Williams believes after some tough years he doesn’t see anything in the near future getting in the way. “Obviously as a sole operator if I get COVID it will have an impact but in a more broader sense we’ve been living in the environment for a while now and we have a lot more mitigation strategies in place,” he said. The uptick in business is a welcome respite for the industry which saw more than 20,000 tourism jobs lost across the State over the two years of COVID and border closures.