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This was published 8 years ago
Cooma businesses benefit from tourism boom after snow season turnaround
By Megan Gorrey, Naomi Avery and Amy Sullivan
Cooma retailers have welcomed an upturn in visitors after a fresh tourism campaign and bumper snowfalls revived a patchy ski season.
Business owners along the main thoroughfare to the NSW ski-fields have benefited from a tourism boom after chilled temperatures and big snow dumps helped turn around a slow start for the main ski-resorts from mid-July.
Village Ski and Snowboard owner Keith Thorn has enjoyed a surge of visitors to his store in Cooma.Credit: Rohan Thomson
Cooma Visitor Centre tourism manager Donna Smith said ski-season tourism was heavily reliant on word of mouth and once people heard there was good snow they headed to the slopes in hordes.
"The slow start was really difficult and not a great situation for us to be in because it really affects local businesses but the snow is in really great shape at the moment so lots of people heading down.
"We're having a lot of trouble finding a spare bed for visitors and last minute bookings so that's a really good problem for us to have."
Village Ski and Snowboard owner Keith Thorn had also experienced a surge in tourists at his Cooma store in recent weeks.
He said visitors were more likely holidaymakers and day trippers as more Australian skiers opted for slopes in Canada and Japan.
"It's more of a tourist market, you come down here to freeze and then go home. The actual ski market, if anything, it's declined."
Cooma-Monaro Shire Council estimated more than a million tourists passed through the town each year with most on their way to the high country and snowfields.
A fresh marketing strategy launched before the start of the ski season used the slogan "So Much to Love", to encourage more visitors to stop, shop and eat in the town in a bid to boost its economy.
Ms Smith said the campaign was "ground-breaking" for the town and would have an impact on businesses even if it encouraged only a small number of visitors to stop and spend in local shops.
"As far as working out whether it's had an impact on more customers and things like that it's a bit too soon to tell at this stage."
Cooma Chamber of Commerce president Kathy Kelly said the campaign had been a successful way to showcase the town's attractions and put it on the radar for travellers.
She said retailers had grown accustomed to the rollercoaster of the snow-season trade and visitor numbers heading into September would be even more dependent on weather conditions.
"The snow's pretty good at the moment, the town's busy and it's feeling really good. The question is how that will hold up as we get into spring.
"If it gets warm in Sydney people will be thinking about the beach but if we get more snowfall we might get some more people coming down."