Ballarat braces for Winterlude winter tourism influx
Record-breaking crowds are expected to flock to Ballarat next month with the start of the city's winter holiday events tomorrow.
The City of Ballarat's first Winterlude festival in conjunction with Sovereign Hill's Christmas in July program, are expected to draw more 60,000 people to the region.
Sovereign Hill is anticipating a surge in international guests, mainly from China and India.
Chief executive Jeremy Johnson said accommodation was almost all booked out.
"Not only Sovereign Hill's accommodation but a lot of the accommodation in Ballarat is booking out," she said.
"It's a great drive and look everyone knew Ballarat was a cold place to visit in winter and what we've done is turn that to our advantage."
She said event organisers were busy putting on the final touches.
"Behind the scenes it's frantic I can assure you," she said.
"The caterers have got a massive job, they'll be baking up over 3,000 scones, 150 kilograms of pork and lots of beef, 300 litres of mulled wine, just to name a few things, and a lot of gingerbread biscuits."
Source: ABC News, June 26th 2015
