BEECHWORTH tourism is still in its recovery trajectory, with visitation down from 2022 numbers but the New Year was on the up compared to the 2019/20 bushfire-impacted festive season.

Indigo Shire Council manager tourism, Susannah Doyle, said the New Year was up 30 per cent from December 2019.

“Accommodation enquiries were quite solid, but our information centre staff were able to find accommodation for last minute bookings,” she said.

“International visitors are on the rise, as well as camping, perhaps due to the current cost of living considerations.

“We did see a higher spend between Christmas and New Year this year.

 “In Rutherglen the numbers for December were up 3 per cent compared to 2022 and were particularly strong between Christmas and New Year.

“Leading up to Christmas numbers were somewhat down, however, we saw a 57 per cent increase in information centre visitors between December 22 and 31, compared to 2022.

 “Accommodation bookings were steady, but we did find visitors were booking at the last minute, which is quite a distinct post-pandemic trend.

“Cycle hire was up this year.

 “Visitors noticed the increase in retail and dining options in the main street and we received a lot of positive feedback.

 “We saw a lot of people between the Christmas/New Year period stopping in as they travel between Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney.

“Yackandandah looked like ‘cycle-central’ on many days with the majority of cars sporting bike racks and many bikes on the street.

“Chiltern was also a hive of activity during the festive season with the main street looking vibrant and busy.”

The family-run High Grove Berries farm in Stanley saw one of their busiest seasons ever, according to the business’ Tony Iaria.

“There were lots of people about, we’re very happy with the crowd we saw,” he said.

“We had bumper crops last year, both in quantity and quality so I think word of mouth got through to a lot of people.

“Raspberries are always a favourite, followed by blueberries and blackberries.

“In 2022 we didn’t have a bumper crop in berries; lots of varieties ran out early which people do hear about.

“We also opened much later that year, on December 29, but last year (2023) we opened on December 3 which is a significant period, and we’ll go through to around January 26.

“By having a good season you feel more motivated to do much of the same for the next year and hope it will be the same.

“Weather plays a big part and last year the weather was perfect for berries.”

“We’ve been lucky here in Stanley and the storms have missed us so we’re fortunate so far this year.

“A big thanks to everyone who takes the effort to come up and pick quality fruit.”