IT’S the end of the year and holiday-makers in the Alpine Shire are spending their time in local eateries, wineries, stores and accomodation to relax into 2025. Bright Chamber of Commerce president Marcus Warner said the town has been excited for the Christmas period. “Our Christmas rush essentially runs through to the Easter tourist season, we won’t be quiet for a while yet,” he said. “It’s pretty positive at the moment, accommodation bookings are looking robust, everybody's looking forward to the Christmas holidays. “The only impact on trade will be the hot weather with some businesses unable to stay open with heat protocols but we hope it's a similar summer to last year. “Bright is still a key place in Aussie decision making on where they want to stay over the holidays, which we love and want to continue.” Myrtleford Chamber of Commerce president Jim van Geet said this year seems to be following every other year of the holiday rush. “The last couple of weeks everybody just wants everything done and has waited until the last minute,” he said. “It happens in the last week before Christmas and it’s certainly the case this year with good sales and lots of people out in food places for their end of year get-togethers; we’re all pretty well booked out. “Clothing shops are doing extremely good trade and all round it’s positive. “We always hope that will continue to New Years. “The difficulty is people are sitting on their money at the moment, which is slowing things down. “Household wealth is up and you do see that in people talking about how bad the economy is so they’re sitting on it which creates its own problem. “We don’t know where that’s going to go but nonetheless we’re looking forward to a new year.”
