Call heard to holiday in Preston Beach

Preston Beach has been inundated with tourists from across the State as COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease.

The tourism spike coincided with the launch of the State Government’s new Wander Out Yonder tourism campaign, which encourages West Australians to holiday within WA.

Aldemor Holiday Services manager Tracy Roache said Preston Beach was “packed to the brim” on the recent long weekend.

“It was great to see tourists in the town again,” Mrs Roache said.

“We have had to change the way we do things but it was nice to start to fill up the holiday houses after a long break.”

Mrs Roache said she had 80 guests for the long weekend and they were all respectful and well behaved.

“We had a lot of families from Perth, the South West and the Wheatbelt,’” she said.

However, Mrs Roache said the tourism industry was “not out of the woods yet”.

“Everyone is still treading very carefully,” she said.

“It is taking a lot longer to get homes ready as we are carrying out extensive cleaning.

“We have done our COVID-19 training courses and we are all up to scratch with the procedures.”

Mrs Roache said her next busiest period would be the July school holidays, which were already filling up.

“A lot of people who had to cancel their stay with us in March have rebooked to stay again.”

The accommodation manager said she issued full refunds for customers who were unable to travel because of the coronavirus in March, April and May. She was delighted to hear they were choosing to rebook.

She said Preston Beach was a “great hideout” for people who wanted a quiet and relaxing holiday near the beach.