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Byron battles backpacker blues

Updated - 1/7/2010 - abc news online.

There is widespread concern about a slump in the number of backpackers visiting the region.

Todd Batson, from the Byron Bay Backpackers Association says occupancy rates are down 20 or 30 percent from the same time last year.

Mr Batson says a strong Australian dollar and the lingering effects of the Global Financial Crisis could be partly to blame.

But he says the soccer tournament in South Africa was always going to take a toll as well.

"Well it’s just all the Europeans, it’s their main game I think and they’re focussed on watching the World Cup," Mr Batson said.

"The English in particular, they live and breathe it and they just don’t travel when the World Cup is on," he said.

"Our quietest months are normally August and the first half of September so it’s going to be hard to know what’s going to happen as we’re coming into those quiet months now," Mr Batson said.

"We’ve already had two of the quietest months that we’d normally get through the whole year so it’s going to be hard to tell whether they are going to start travelling again after the World Cup or whether it’s going to stay the same and be quiet until October," he said.

www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/29/2939801.htm

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