New and returning travellers once again flocked to the Mid North Coast region for the Easter long weekend as the tourism industry made its long-awaited return.
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Jenee Williams travelled from Brisbane to meet up with her family from Sydney to celebrate the Easter holidays in Port Macquarie.
She said it has been great to be able to travel to Port Macquarie again after a two-year absence.
"We have friends who live here and we always love coming to Port, so it's great to be back," she said.
"I think we love Port so much because of the beaches, we all got little boogie boards for the kids so we took them down to Lighthouse Beach yesterday, and I think that was everyone's favourite part of the trip.
"It's also a great meeting spot for the family, and I think it's just such a beautiful part of the world."
Cafes and restaurants across the Mid North Coast region saw a huge influx of customers over the long weekend as tourists came from all over the world.
Chop 'n Chill corporate operations manager Marc Strachan said the staff have had a ball over the weekend with the new and returning travellers.
"The weekend was awesome, it was great to see everyone coming back to town again. We had a few visitors, a few tourists and quite a few foreigners too, so it's been really nice to hear all the different accents again," he said.
"I think it was just good to see the locals interacting with the visitors again who haven't been able to come here for the last two years.
"We are always excited to see the travellers again, we have a lot of multicultural staff members here, we have people from Scotland to Singapore, and because of that we are always very happy to have everyone come back to town.
"I think it's been great to see the regulars who come from all over the world to see us, we've had a couple of tourists who haven't been able to visit us for over two years, they're back now and said they're glad to see we survived COVID, so it's been great to catch up with them as well."
Port Macquarie locals Craig and Jackie Brennan said they were happy to see the tourists around Port Macquarie again.
"Having people back in the restaurants and cafes has been great to see, it's been so tough with COVID, the bushfire and the floods, so it's great to see people wanting to come back now and see our town," Mr Brennan said.
"This holiday has definitely been busier, it's been a little bit harder to get a coffee, but you don't mind that when you look in and see that businesses have been going great, it's been really good to see."
Although the new tourists have been a great boost for the Mid North Coast region, some businesses have been overwhelmed with the recent influx of customers.
North Haven's Brew Haven general manager Felix La Spina said the cafe was 'extremely busy' during the Easter long weekend.
"It was extremely, extremely busy but we knew it would happen, it was just a matter of preparing," he said.
"We were one of the only places open in the area so we copped the brunt of the tourists, and it just became way too busy."
Mr La Spina said the restaurant ran out of milk during the long weekend even though their suppliers gave all they could spare, and they were also short of key food supplies by Monday.
"We were still able to offer most of the food on the menu, but it does make it hard for the business," he said.
"It was also hard when we had to send some people away because we had a 40 minute wait time. We were so busy we had to close the kitchen early too."
Mr La Spina said staff shortages also made it hard for the business to cope during the long weekend.
"We were down eight staff members, we had two on holiday and six in isolation, so we made it by the skin of our teeth," he said.
"We were just able to manage because we have a good team, so we were able to pull it off for the customers, but it was definitely hard."
Kempsey's Depot Cafe experienced one of their busiest days of the year on Easter Saturday.
Depot Cafe barista Ashley Swan said the lead up to the long weekend was just as busy.
"I personally wasn't working that day, but when I came in on Thursday we were very busy, we had all sorts of tourists come to visit us, and I think the numbers just grew by Saturday," she said.
"My colleagues said the cafe was really busy on Saturday, and they had to stop cooking menu food quite early because they had no seats available. They were just completely under the pump with new customers.
"I think it's been really good to see new people around Kempsey, it brings a lot of interest to the town, so it's been great to see the tourists over Easter."
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