Winter school holidays drive trade in Warrnambool as businesses say normalcy in sight

Images Restaurant Cafe and Cocktail bar owner Jonathan Dodwell - whose business has been adversely affected by COVID-19 lockdowns - said he believed the venue had turned a corner.

"It was very busy," Mr Dodwell said.

"I was pretty happy with it to be honest. We're getting a lot of international travellers back and as usual a lot of people from Melbourne have come down now they've found Warrnambool.

"A lot of them are coming back for their second and third visit now, which is good. I would say it's become a favourite spot for them.

"The travellers are mainly from the Asian countries but I've had a few travellers from Europe as well though - Dutch and English."

He said it was clear many of his customers wanted to venture further afield in the wake of the pandemic.

"Things just seem to be getting back to normal - I just get that feeling we're getting back to the usual way of things," Mr Dodwell said.

"There isn't so much talk of COVID-19, there's still obviously a lot of cases going on but it doesn't seem to be influencing peoples' travel now so much.

"People just want to get out and get on with life, I definitely feel we're definitely getting back to the normal business routine now."

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Bohemia owner Steve Hickman agreed trade had largely returned to pre-pandemic levels.

"We're pretty much back to normal," he said.

"We would estimate we're probably up over normal 25-30 per cent."

Mr Hickman said Melburnians drove a large portion of the crowds.

"We were extremely busy for the whole period of the school holidays," he said.

"We had lots of visitors from throughout the state, mainly Melbourne.

"It's good, it's been busy which creates its own stresses but we're very happy with things.

"People are moving from Melbourne, coming out to Warrnambool and supporting us."

Blue Whale Motor Inn owner Manjit Sidhu took over management of the facility in January and found he had no vacancies.

"We were full which was really good because we have 24 rooms," he said.

"It was full in the second week of school holidays, the first week was a little bit quiet but the second was very busy.

"Most of the visitors were from Melbourne, I think."

Best Western Olde Maritime Motor Inn owner Raj Patel said he was happy with current occupancy levels.

"I'm almost booked out tomorrow," he said.

"Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my heaviest trade due to corporate bookings.

"Weekends aren't too bad, they're at about 70 per cent occupancy. I'm happy with that, so there's still people travelling which is good."

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