recover this month.
Visitor numbers to Cobar for the first six months of this year are down on last year’s count, however this year’s visitors have been spending more.
Cobar Shire Council’s tourism manager Demi Smith delivered the six monthly visitor figures at last week’s Tourism Advisory Committee meeting.
Demi said visitor numbers from January to June 2024 totalled 10,914 which is 950 less than last year’s figure of 11,864 visitors for the same period.
Museum shop sales this year from January to June total $38,015 which is an increase of almost $4,000 on last year for the same period when the museum recorded $34,040 in sales.
Demi reports the visitor numbers are starting to recover with June 2024’s figures of 3,214 similar to June 2023 when 3,377 people passed through.
Demi’s statistics show that March and April this year, where we had a combined total of 3,437 visitors, were much quieter than last year’s combined total of 4,294 with 857 less people visiting Cobar during the same period.
A lot more coach groups have been visiting this year with a number of coach tours having already re-booked for next year.
Demi reported the majority of our visitors this year have been NSW residents with 42.3 per cent having a NSW postcode.
A total of 23.7 per cent have been visitors from Queensland, 13.7 per cent were travelers from Victoria and 2.5 per cent were international visitors.
Cobar’s Sound Chapel continues to be a good draw card for tourists with 159 people visiting the Sound Chapel this year, with 78 of those visiting in June.
Demi reports the first three weeks of July have been exceptionally busy and she’s looking forward to presenting those figures to next month’s meeting.
“Then there’s a lot happening in August with visitors coming for the Glenhope Shindig and our Sunday Sunday Markets and more visitors passing through to the Louth Races and the Mundi Mundi Bash, so we expect to have some high visitation figures in August as well,” Demi said.
