“The Melbourne and surrounds market makes up around 80 per cent of our usual clientele,” Mr Du Kamp said.
“The standard restrictions have really had an impact on our business and the whole community. Being a tourist town, everyone is integrated into the tourism market, so it's definitely been a challenging 20 months with the highs and lows that everyone has had to experience.”
Mr Du Kamp and the Quest Apartments team have been able to manage throughout the uncertain period by focusing on what they can control, rather than what is out of their hands.
“We've been working on a refurbishment that will have the finishing touches put on it next month because we've had supply issues through COVID.
“That will put us in a really good stead to welcome the Melburnians back in November.
“We're really confident that Echuca will have a fantastic summer’ we just need to control what we can control, and for our community that's vaccinations,” Mr Du Kamp said.
“It's really important that we strive to get our vaccination rates as high as we can, because that will be really important in the foundational success of the summer, and it's something we can control.
“If you can, and you're eligible, get vaccinated, because that will go a long way to securing our summer period for the community.”
Mr Du Kamp also spoke of the excitement in the air for not just accommodation providers, but all hospitality venues and their staff in the twin towns.
“Not just my team, but all of hospitality has done it really tough, and I'm really looking forward for them to be able to have some level of normality back as well,” he said.
“To see a full team buzzing around and enjoying their jobs with some certainty will be a great thing.”
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