A walk along High St on Monday confirmed the fact that several businesses were choosing to stay closed on the public holiday, with a variety of reasons contributing to the decision to trade as take-away only — or not at all.
Some businesses have managed to stay open by offering take-away-only service, something many patrons have become accustomed to in the past two years.
With a series of public holidays adding to the frustration of the business owners, several in the High St precinct have decided not to open on several days during the holiday period.
With Christmas Day and Boxing Day falling on a weekend, two weekdays last week were public holidays. And then the New Year’s Day public holiday was also moved to a Monday due to January 1 being a Saturday.
It meant that businesses that chose to open on December 27, 28 and January 3 were all subject to paying their staff high penalty rates if they chose to operate on the public holiday.
According to tourism officials, the visitor numbers to Echuca and Moama have been at levels equal to, if not better than, pre-COVID-19 years.
A new survey conducted by the Australian Hotels Association of 83 key publicans across the state has revealed the hospitality workforce is sitting at just 61 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
Echuca Moama will continue to be a haven for tourists until mid-April, when the holiday season will unofficially end after Easter.
With the Southern 80 waterski race (February 11 to 13) and Riverboats Music Festival (February 18 to 20) both scheduled to follow hot on the heels of the January holiday period, there appears to be little respite on the horizon.
Committee for Echuca Moama has a series of events, including its Charity Golf Day, scheduled in February, and the Echuca rodeo will also make a return in the second month of the calendar.
There are now 80 active cases of COVID-19 in the Campaspe region, Echuca (27) and Kyabram (34) accounting for 61 of those.
