Kempsey businesses credit local customers during tourist season

Perfect weather conditions along the coast have welcomed a busy holiday period with plenty of tourists.

Crescent Head and South West Rocks have been popular attractions but Argus reporter Emily Walker spoke to three Kempsey business owners and employees to see if they had benefitted from the influx of tourists on the coast.

Trade has been pretty good at Mahalo Interiors according to owner Shonell Everson.

But most of her customers have been locals rather than tourists.

"I think a lot of [local] people come in with their families after Christmas because they are home and they like to bring them in," she said.

"I don't get a lot of tourists as such and I find sometimes if it is tourists coming through, they don't often spend.

They are just window shopping, killing time and trying to get out of the caravan."

The lifestyle store has been operating in Kempsey for eight years with Ms Everson hoping for another great year in business.

Ms Everson said it possibly would be better if there were more tourist attractions in Kempsey.

"We would need to advertise at the caravan parks and in the coastal towns themselves," she said.

"I think they just don't know about us so that could be part of the problem."

For cafe employee Tanya Thomson, business hasn't seen any changes during this year's tourism season.

"It's been pretty steady right from the beginning," she said.

Karly's Cafe tucked away in the Pead's Arcade on Smith Street, opened in August 2022 and is mostly visited by local customers.

Ms Thomson said in the past month only three to four couples have come into the cafe as they were passing by Kempsey.

"I know if I'm travelling, I'm not going to go off the highway," Ms Thomson said.

"If [tourists] are going to come off the highway, they come in at the roundabout [at the Kempsey South Service Centre] and...they can get everything there that they can get in here as far as food goes.

They're not going to come in here, they're going to keep going."

Ms Thomson agreed that there was a need to bring more tourists into town but didn't know how.

"It'd be great but there's that many cafes in the area," she said.

"I'm not say they're going to come to this one.

They're going to go to whatever one they see first, which I would do."

Tracie Kemp knows the benefits tourists can have to local businesses.

Her and her husband ran a second store at South West Rocks for 18 years before closing up in February 2022.

Now at the renovated Kempsey store, Mrs Kemp still gets tourists coming in.

"I wouldn't say it's been brilliant but it's been not too bad," she said.

"We are getting more people from South West Rocks now because the store has closed there but there has been a lot of holiday makers around."

We are now getting customers that we would have had out there, in here."

Having built a loyal following from local residents and visitors alike, Mrs Kemp said tourists who used to do Christmas shopping at the previous South West Rocks store have come into Kempsey instead.

"I have noticed us being here has drawn a few more people coming back into Kemspey because they've come looking for us," she said.

"You normally don't get as many tourists coming into Kempsey as you do with Crescent Head, Hat Head and South West Rocks."

When asked if Kempsey needed more tourism attractions, Mrs Kemp said it depends on what the attractions were.

"Retail in general is changing," she said.

"I think if you want small business to continue in the towns, the locals and people in general need to think about where they are spending their money and what can happen."

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