Slow down for summer

Businesses are being warned to brace for a slow summer as the increase in the Australian dollar draws visitors overseas.

Small Business Centre Vasse facilitator Michael Brown told the Times a downturn in visitation and expenditure over the winter months was being forecast to continue into summer, with small businesses some of the hardest hit.

“With the currencies there’s a lot of small business owners that aren’t having the numbers coming through or the spend is less,” he said.

How has the strong Aussie dollar affected your business? Email: editor@bdtimes.com.au

Mr Brown said several of Busselton and Dunsborough’s businesses could be forced to close due to the extra pressure in the tourist season and the strong Australian dollar provided a bigger incentive for visitors to travel overseas rather than locally.

“I find it’s small businesses in general because we’re a region that’s so reliant on tourism those two sectors have really been hammered,” he said.

Busselton Chamber of Commerce CEO Ray McMillan agreed the local business community had been impacted by slower winter months along with the rest of Australia.

“The number of people going away is exceeding the number of people coming in for the past 18 months,” he said.

Mr McMillan said cafés, restaurants and clothing stores had been the exception to the decrease in expenditure and indicated a tendency for customers to indulge in luxuries during slower months.

Mr Brown advised small businesses to “conserve” expenditure and look after their existing customers.

Rent, he said would also continue to put pressure on Busselton and Dunsborough based busineses with many CBD sites commanding rents of up to $350 p/sqm a week.

“It’s all relative. If you don’t have the flow through of traffic then you’re not going to have the revenue and then it’s too high,” he said.

Mr McMillan said small businesses were coping well with the changes in customer habits.

“People aren’t being overly optimistic but I don’t think there’s been any great pessimism,” he said.

Geographe Bay Tourism Association CEO Matt Walker admitted a strong Australian dollar could increase the appeal of a cheap overseas holiday but West Australians were now “less accepting of the baggage” of such holidays.

“International travel presents a range of health concerns and is time consuming,” he said.

He said the association was opti-mistic about the year ahead and the region was currently the most visited of the State’s destinations outside Perth.

Mr Walker said the association was working closely with tourism body Australia’s South West to promote the region to key markets and deliver visitors after Summer.