The streets and hospitality venues of Port Campbell are busy and accommodation is booking out

Port Campbell Motor Inn co-owner and manager Jenny Deppeler, who runs the business with her husband Paul, said the streets were bustling again after months of COVID lockdowns and restrictions.

"We should be fully booked until January 10," she said.

"It was similar last year with people having two weeks off, then generally going back to work on the 10^th."

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Ms Deppeler said all accommodation services should be booked out around this time of year.

"Port Campbell has a few workers who would be staying, as well as some tourists. We recently had a booking of people from Singapore," she said.

But the summer period hasn't come without its cancellations, with some people unable to honour their bookings due to having COVID-19 or being a close contact of a positive case.

Ms Deppeler said bookings would continue to flow in January with the Australia Day weekend towards the end of the month and the Labour Day weekend in March.

Another business in Port Campbell that has been flat out is the 12 Rocks Cafe and Beach Bar. Mick Hunt and his wife Leonie have run the business for the past 14 years.

Mr Hunt told The Standard business had been "pretty good" over the past month-and-a-half.

"I didn't expect this summer to be any less than any other summers over the years that we've run the place," he said.

"It's been a very good business to us. "Buying it was a good decision for us.

"I have this saying, you never know how many people walk past when your place is full."

Mr Hunt said the lack of international tourists had little impact on the patronage of their venue.

"The dynamics are different with international tourists, but when Victoria was locked down, we got a lot of the visitors coming from within Victoria," he said.

"I don't see the lockdown of the international tourists having any changes on the way we run our business.

"It's kind of like when before Christmas when the Omicron variant of COVID-19 came out, tourists decided to stay at home."

Mr Hunt said he believed the tourists were supporting the hospitality industry "because we've had a hard time".

"When you haven't been able to go out for six months you're going to run out at the first chance," he said.

"People have been out, while also adhering to the rules.

"If you have lots of tourists around, you have a good chance of being busy. I'm looking forward to having a ripper run right through to Easter."

Mr Hunt said patronage at the business came in waves.

"We had our big days this week on Monday and Tuesday, the public holidays, with Wednesday dropping off," he said.

"We'll be busy again on Friday, which will ease off a fraction then increase and remain consistent until the Australia Day public holiday.

"It will then ease off when students go back to school."

The Hunts also work on a dairy farm between Port Campbell and Peterborough with the assistance of their twin sons, Ash and Tom Hunt.

It is a family affair with Mick and Leonie's daughter, Melissa McKenzie, and niece, Kelly Thompson, being among around 25 staff members, including some long term staffers working at the venue.

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