Strong tourism season indicated by numbers through the doors of Great Southern visitor centres

Visitor centres in the region have reported strong numbers coming through their doors in December, which the City of Albany has labelled a “positive sign” for tourism. More than 4600 individuals visited the Albany Visitor Centre in December, compared to about 4000 in the same month of 2021. City of Albany corporate and commercial services executive director Matthew Gilfellon said it was a “positive sign that tourism in Albany and the wider region is still strong despite the opening of interstate and national borders.” “Staff assisted an array of holiday-makers, with many tourists chasing adventures in nature, advice on local hikes, unique food experiences and ways to immerse themselves in Albany’s deep,” he said. “Having a hub of information on local businesses and tourism operators at the Albany Visitor Centre is an asset to the community, keeping visitors in town for longer.” Denmark Visitor Centre also reported higher numbers coming in looking for information, with 1957 people coming through the doors in December compared to 1548 in 2021. Centre co-ordinator Jazmin Maher said the higher visitation rate was not necessarily benefiting businesses. She said many members of the Denmark Chamber of Commerce, who operate the visitor centre, had reported their income level had not been noticeably impacted by more visitors. “What we’ve heard is that people are going through to beaches and doing all the free stuff and not actually spending time or money in wineries, retail stores or restaurants and cafes,” she said. She said there had been a lot of interstate and international visitors coming through. “Definitely the borders being open is the biggest thing, but I think Denmark has had a bit more marketing towards it over the last year,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of people tagging Elephant Rocks and Greens Pool on Instagram, so it becoming better known as a destination in that sense.” Mt Barker Visitor Centre visitation bucked the trend as its December figures dropped from the previous year (from 983 to 662), but operations manager Kathryn MacNeil was not concerned by the numbers. She said the fluctuations were normal for the smaller volunteer-run centre, and that it had been a big positive to see more interstate visitors coming through the door. She said visitors to the centre were most interested in finding information on the town’s murals. “We have an interim map of the murals that visitors can come in to grab which is not available online, and probably won’t be because it’s something we’d like to keep people coming in to get,” she said. “We also service a lot of enquiries about the Porongurups and others about the Stirling Range.”