Easter trade good for Capes

A bumper Easter weekend has been welcomed by the Capes tourism industry, on the back of new figures showing an overall increase in visitation to the region.

Picture by Becky Felstead: Bike Shed Dunsborough owners Rod and Jenny Brown

Tourism WA figures, recently released for the December quarter, showed visitation to the South West increased by 15.4 per cent.

This was bolstered by a 16.7 per cent increase in intrastate visitors and a 3.6 per cent increase in international tourists.

Despite interstate visitor numbers to WA decreasing by 2.6 per cent, the South West experienced a 13.1 per cent increase.

Geographe Bay Tourism Association chief executive Simon Taylor said it was great to see growth in visitor numbers.

“Hopefully this is a sign that the region is beginning to return to its pre-GFC levels,” he said.

Mr Taylor said Easter had been busy for the region with accommodation selling out through the Busselton and Dunsborough visitor centres, and limited availability left for the remainder of the school holidays.

He said although numbers through the visitor centres had not increased, this was more to do with how people were accessing information.

“We are seeing more and more people look to the web to access information, which is why we are putting increased resources into our and our members’ online presence,” he said.

Dunsborough Bike Shed owners Rod and Jenny Brown said the business had been “flat out” with bicycle hires over the weekend.

Mrs Brown said there had been more traffic through the store compared to previous Easters, and while their financial figures were relatively similar to last year there had been more transactions.