The Limestone Coast is continuing to bustle with tourists, after an incredibly busy Christmas and New Year holiday period.

An influx of 30,000 tourists was expected to roll through the region over the holiday season and Limestone Coast Local Government Association Acting Destination Development Manager Tamara North said tourist numbers hit more than 25,000.

“From all of the reports I have got it has been absolutely fantastic, a lot of the townships have been fully booked,” Ms North said.

“Hopefully the season stays like this, it is fantastic.”

Ms North said the region would potentially remain busy for the entirety of January, particularly if the nice weather continued, and she had heard caravan parks would remain fully booked for the next few weeks.

Ms North said the number of people in the region was expected to remain steady for the whole month with more people coming for an extended weekend around Australia Day.

She said the future bookings data showed a higher than usual 82% of the region was booked out during January, with an average stay of three nights per person.

Ms North said there were many Adelaide people who would usually have travelled to the Riverland but had instead travelled to the Limestone Coast due to the floods.

“Some of the tourists were planning on going to the Riverland and that is why we are seeing a bit more of an increase as well, so we are definitely seeing a lot more people than we originally expected,” she said.

Ms North said it had been busy both in town and the surrounding area and said tourists and locals had been taking the opportunity to explore attractions and experiences across the Limestone Coast.

“I believe everywhere has been extremely busy and people are actually going to see places they have not seen before,” she said.

“People are happy to be in the region, happy to explore, enjoying the wonderful weather we are having.”

Ms North said the Christmas and New Year period was a major success and had been one of the best summer visitor periods recorded for the region.

“I think it has been one of the best years we have had since well before COVID,” she said.

“There are a lot of Victorians in town, a lot of them passing through, some of the Victorians have not been here since 2019.

“They are not as COVID-scared as they have been in the past couple of years, people are not so worried they are going to get locked down and locked into a state, so they are happy to travel more.”

Ms North encouraged everyone to get out and about and explore something new and take advantage of the natural environment, walking trails and experiences in the region.

Local hospitality venues have reported busy times as Mount Gambier Hotel venue manager Belinda Crute said the main corner premises had been exceptionally busy during the Christmas break.

The hotel has been booked solid for the last three months, with the first two night stay not available until the middle of this month.

Ms Crute said visitors had travelled from across Australia, with the hotel’s dog friendly rooms in demand.

“There’s been a lot of interest from people in Adelaide, but we have had people from all over coming to stay,” she said.

“It’s been incredibly busy but there is such a buzz around town.”

Ms Crute said the hotel’s live cray tank had proved very popular, with local lobsters in demand with many tourists.

“People love being able to buy local produce, which is what we specialise in,” she said.

“Last week we had one of our busiest days on record, but then we turned around the next day and broke that record again.

“Some days we have been serving 350 meals.”

Mount Gambier Chamber of Commerce president Candice Fennell said it had been a very successful holiday period in the Limestone Coast region.

“I think there has been a buzz amongst Mount Gambier and surrounding towns, it is just really lovely, the general venues as in our hospitality and retail venues seem to be really busy,” Ms Fennell said.

“I went down to the Umpherston Caves and the Blue Lake a couple of times myself with visitors that we had staying here from Victoria and New South Wales and both places had huge numbers.

“You can see the huge number of different number plates floating around town as well.

“We have just over four weeks of school holidays so hopefully we keep seeing some of those visitors coming to the region and the community.”

Ms Fennell encouraged people to shop local and buy what they could locally as much as possible.

“As much as we say shop local, also visit local is probably a good message for people who are wanting to support our community and our local businesses,” she said.