Before that, it was setting the tourism world on fire.
The industry was bringing in $1.3 million on average a day, meaning close to $500 million in a calendar year.
Businesses were seeing record numbers as tourist numbers grew.
And then, it stopped.
Now, the story of COVID damage to the industry is finally being understood.
Speaking to the Legislative Council’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee, Echuca Moama Tourism chief executive Kathryn Mackenzie said the ramifications of repeated lockdowns for businesses were still being felt more than a year after the pandemic began.
“The Echuca-Moama region has been one of the hardest hit regions in Australia with 41 out of 52 weeks of closures over the 12 months (between) March 2020 and March 2021,” she said.
“The region pre-COVID-19 was experiencing record visitation, with 797,000 overnight visitors, and visitors spending a record 2.4 million visitor nights in the region and 770,000 domestic day-trip visitors.
“These visitors spent $482 million in the region or more simply put contributed $1.3 million per day into the local visitor economy.”
Ms Mackenzie said research into local businesses had shown many suffered almost unbelievable financial losses, especially when the border was shut again on New Year's Eve.
Murray Regional Tourism surveyed tourism businesses along the Murray and found the impacts on the accommodation sector were immense.
“In winter 2020 an average size motel lost between $20,000 and $30,000 per month,” Ms Mackenzie said.
“But in January 2021 when the Victorian border closed, the same size motel estimated its losses to be between $120,000 and $150,000 per month.
“With caravan parks, the losses over winter were between $20,000 and $50,000 per month, but in January some saw between $350,000 and $500,000, while some large parks lost in the vicinity of $1.2 million.”
Ms Mackenzie also spoke about the damaging impact of the loss of events, including 2021 Riverboats Music Festival, the Southern 80 and the 2020 Winter Blues Festival.
Winter Blues Festival chair Peter Williams also addressed the hearing, speaking of a desire for events to be protected in the same way businesses were in future.
“Winter Blues has turned one of the quietest weeks in the community into one of the busiest,” he said.
“Many of the venues that host events as part of the festival report their three strongest days of trading during the event, so the loss of the festival in 2020 was devastating to them.
“We believe that events and not-for-profits should be able to access support in the same way businesses can, but we also need to protect our artists.
“Those who were set to perform were not eligible for JobKeeper despite music and concerts being their main source of income.
“We hope that in the future we can find a way to support those in positions like that if this type of situation arises again.”
Committee for Echuca-Moama chair Dean Oberin and Echuca-Moama Accommodation Association co-president Paul Lavars also addressed the committee on Wednesday, June 2.
MORE LOCAL NEWS
COVID-19 restrictions to lift in regional Victoria, with seven-day extension to Melbourne lockdown
Key Echuca-Moama business figures to address Victorian Parliament over COVID impact
Council planning applications to move online
11°C