THE 2017/18 summer holiday season is providing mixed fortunes for the district’s motel and caravan parks.
While some establishments were running at capacity, others found the numbers of visitors had dropped compared to previous years.
Kerang Cabins and Ibis Caravan Park manager, Heather Campbell said that the park was operating at 95 per cent of its capacity.
“Through Christmas it’s been visitors here to see family, but also some tourists,” she said.
Ms Campbell said that many visitors used Kerang as a place to base themselves at equal distance to the attractions across the area.
“They use it as a base while they go and visit Echuca or the lakes, but then it’s quieter at the end of the day. They get the best of the businesses during the day then come back and have a nice quiet time,” she said.
Kerang Caravan and Tourist Park manager, Len Sweet said they frequently hit a balance between people passing through for one night and people coming specifically to visit the area.
“Most of them are from Melbourne – we get overnight visitors as well [coming] from Adelaide through Mildura. It’s 50-50,” he said.
However, Koondrook Caravan Park manager, John Forbes said that numbers were down this season.
“I don’t really know what the reason is. Lots of people have to work during the holidays but I’ve no idea really,” he said.
Pelican Waters Lake Charm also found many of its regular visitors didn’t arrive this year, but had plenty of luck with new patrons, according to owner Kaylene Adam.
“I think it’s busier compared to the year before, even though a lot of our annuals didn’t turn up,” she said.
“I reckon we would have hit around 500 people – they were mainly from Melbourne and [surrounding] suburbs.”
Although the season is slowly drawing to a close, local parks are likely to stay busy with the continuing arrival of people working on the Gannawarra Solar Farm project to the west of Kerang, as well as the Australia Day long weekend later this month.
