Bellarine Times
Tuesday 13 April 2010
VOL 3. No 15
www.bellarinetimes.com.au
FREE WEEKLY
BOOM TIME A host of Easter activities and thousands of tourists underline the Bellarine’s standing as one of the state’s leading holiday destinations
BY ALISON MARTIN A BUMPER Easter for local accommodation and tourism operators has given the peninsula industry confidence the Bellarine is forging ahead as a premier holiday destination. The largest seafood feast in Australia, national seafood trade fair, charity restaurant, family fairs, art shows and the growing list of awardwinning wineries on the peninsula culminated over the Easter break to promote the peninsula as a major tourist attraction. With many first-time visitors exploring the Bellarine, repeat visits can be expected and as cold weather discourages beach-goers, the popularity of the Bellarine Taste Trail has operators optimistic the region has established a promising winter tourism opportunity. Geelong Otway Tourism deputy director, Terry Hickey, said the sentiment among tourism operators was that it had been a “very good Easter” and numbers were probably up on last year, although visitation figures had not been finalised. He confirmed the large number of events on the Bellarine, including the Seafood Feast, which already had a strong following, had contributed to increased visitation to the peninsula. “All of these activities help to raise the profile of the region,” he said. For new tourist resort, the Bellarine Big4, almost 1,000 people stayed over Easter, taking their guest list to more than 8,600 people since opening in September last year. Bellarine Big4 operator, Sophie Bone, said the response from visitors had been “overwhelming”, with some families returning to the park for the third or fourth time since it had opened just over six months ago. “Over Easter we were booked out; 80 sites and 25 units and the kids’ club
activities were so popular,” she said. Bone said as guests were leaving they were already planning to come back for their next holiday and recommending the Bellarine Big4 to friends. “We even have people booking for Easter 2012,” she added. Blues Train operator and Bellarine Tourism chair, Hugo Armstrong, said the popular musical-rail experience had also been booked out over Easter. “We were full as usual and we had a lot of first timers, which is great,” he said. He said Easter was a unique holiday because it was a longer break and people came from all over Australia to the Bellarine for its attractions, particularly the Queenscliff Seafood Feast. Armstrong also praised the ‘park and ride’ initiative to reduce traffic congestion in Queenscliff, which allowed Good Friday visitors to leave their cars at Suma Park and travel by train to the seafood festival. “It would be great if the service could be made available for other Queenscliff events like the music festival and the hot rod show,” he said. Queenscliff Seafood Feast, Seafood Show and Charity Restaurant marketing manager, Scott Talbot, said the feedback from everyone was that the mammoth combination of seafood events was so wonderful that organisers would “undoubtedly do it again”. “The Seafood Feast was a success operationally and the world class entertainment and Seafood Show gave people more to do; the response was overwhelmingly positive,” he said. Talbot and family members, Grant and Michelle Talbot, had spent six months voluntarily organising the massive philanthropic attraction, which included processing 3,000 reservations for the magnificent five-star Charity Restaurant on the Queenscliff pier.
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