Olympics Hangover
Newcastle Herald
Monday October 2, 2000
THE Hunter tourist industry is suffering an Olympic hangover with bookings at a nine-year low.
International day-trippers are visiting but not staying in any of the region's drawcard areas.
Port Stephens and Cessnock have been left with hundreds of accommodation vacancies and the only Olympic travellers Newcastle can lure are backpackers and the corporate market.
Far from being the expected boom period, Hunter tourism has experienced its worst two weeks in nine years, according to Hunter Valley Tourist Centre owner Alan Freeman.
`You could count on one hand the number of people coming from the Olympics making bookings in the Hunter,' he said.
`We had a very quiet week last week and it certainly hasn't livened up.
`I have only taken about nine or 10 calls on the weekend.'
Newcastle Beach YHA manager Tex Symington said backpackers were swarming to the city.
The Holiday Inn looked like being 75% full next week but admitted corporate functions had helped.
But things are looking grim for the rest of the region.
Port Stephens Tourism deputy chairman Barry Watson said 25% of the accommodation in the traditionally popular bay area remained unbooked. Mr Watson, from Port Stephens' largest letting agency, KD Winning, said about 150 of the agency's 500 holiday units and houses were empty.
`There are plenty of vacancies even though we are usually completely booked out at this time of the year,' he said.
Peppers Anchorage expects to be only one-third full in coming weeks.
A spokeswoman from Port Stephens Vistors Centre said the area was suffering an Olympic slump.
`I think we may have a lot of day visitors but they don't seem to be staying overnight,' she said.
Mr Freeman said the region had felt the pinch of SOCOG's decision to pull the plug on its Hunter accommodation and suspected travellers were heading farther north.
`It's a shame the Olympics has not helped the Hunter but I think everybody is heading off to the warmer places like Cairns or Surfers Paradise,' he said. But Hunter Olympic Business Taskforce coordinator Sandra Gilshenan said the area had shone under the international spotlight.
`The Hunter has had a lot of media attention and the area has been shown to millions of people around the world,' she said.
`But the real benefits will be in the years to come and even though the immediate benefit is great the greater benefit will be later on.'
Television footage on Pokolbin vineyards is to go to air next week on BBC World in 58 countries.
Gus Maher, of Hunter Valley Wine Country Tourism, said he learned of the BBC News slot in a letter of thanks from a BBC producer who brought a film crew to the area during the Olympics.
`The scenery was spectacular and the hospitality overwhelming,' he wrote.
Interviews with vignerons Brian McGuigan and Bruce Tyrrell are included in the news segment.
© 2000 Newcastle Herald
