WHY WE NEED NEW EASTER EVENT
Thousands less tourists felt by city’s accommodation providers
TOOWOOMBA’S accommodation providers want the city to embrace a new major Easter weekend festival to make up for the loss of thousands of tourists.
Easter is no longer a happy time for the region’s hotels and motels, who used to enjoy a huge boost from the 30,000 extra visitors that came for Easterfest.
But a spokesman for the Toowoomba Accommodation Providers group said the loss of the festival after 2015 had placed a strain on occupancy rates during the long weekend.
TOOWOOMBA’S accommodation providers have called on the region to embrace a new major Easter tourism event to counter a lack of visitors.
Motel and hotel owners have complained about a drop in occupancy rates since Easterfest was discontinued three years ago.
Toowoomba Accommodation Providers spokesman Tony Heckendorf said vacancy rates for the Easter weekend were much higher than in previous years, highlighting the need for a major tourism event.
“Talking to some other motel operators, their Easter is looking a little sad,” he said.
“There are lots of good reasons to visit Toowoomba during this time but we’re missing a major drawcard festival for the Easter weekend.”
The Streets and Lanes Festival, which will be held on Saturday, started two years ago to fill the void left by Easterfest.
Coordinator Dave Schenk, who was the Easterfest chief executive officer, said last year’s event drew between 5000 and 10,000 people, much lower than its predecessor at its peak (40,000).
But he said the event had potential to be the major drawcard that Toowoomba needed
‘‘ TALKING TO SOME OTHER MOTEL OPERATORS, THEIR EASTER IS LOOKING A LITTLE SAD.
TONY HECKENDORF
– but only if businesses and organisations supported it.
“Streets and Lanes is a different beast – the model that we came up with from discussions with 20 churches was a more devolved model (than Easterfest),” Mr Schenk said.
“It wouldn’t hurt for local businesses to understand that apart from funding from the council and funding from the churches, we don’t have many other funding streams because it’s not ticketed.
“For Streets to become a significant event to put tourists in beds, it’s going to come through organisations who are prepared to say they want to be involved.
“My question to the hotels association, is: what can they do to grow Streets and Lanes?”
Tourism Darling Downs chief executive officer Ruth Wetmore said Toowoomba Regional Council and tourism groups needed to take on a major event in autumn to complement the success of the Carnival of Flowers.