Sunshine Coast accommodation fully booked over Easter!

Even in the face of floods, bluebottle jellyfish, an oil spill and the worldwide economic slump, Sunshine Coast accommodation managed to pull in as many visitors as ever over this Easter Break. There's a lot to be proud of at the moment – the Sunshine Coast has also has experienced the largest growth in business travellers in Queensland in the most recent financial year.

According to the Queensland Business Events Survey, the region had around 20,000 business travellers, with an average spending of $400 per day. Since many businesses are scaling back the costs of their conferences, this is an especially impressive figure. Of course, the region is one of those places where a business trip can easily double as a Sunshine Coast holiday, so perhaps it shouldn't be quite so surprising.

A poor Easter tourism season was predicted due to heavy flooding in the preceding week, causing many tour operators to shut down on what is normally one of the biggest weekends of the entire year for Sunshine Coast holidays. Campsite and caravan park owners in Kin Kin and the upper Noosa River region where the floods were the heaviest tried to caution tourists against coming for the weekend due to flood damage.

The Sunshine Coast still managed to pull out a great weekend for tourism. Being close to Brisbane led many to make last minute travel plans. A $2 million marketing campaign didn't hurt either; focused on demonstrating that the beaches of the coast were as clean, safe and inviting as ever after the oil spill, the campaign was aimed at attracting tourists from Melbourne, Sydney and New Zealand.

Naturally, since this was still Easter break, there were plenty of tourists who had booked their Sunshine Coast accommodation long in advance. Undeterred by the floods, jellyfish or the oil spill, these visitors allowed facilities from campsites to five star resorts to breathe a sigh of relief and hang up the no vacancy sign.

A school holiday concurrent with the break was a stroke of good luck for the coast, with many holiday makers being able to stay longer and spend money in the local economy. Restaurants, shopping centres and amusement facilities saw a lot of traffic thanks to rain and rough surf conditions which left travellers seeking indoor activities.

Neither the weather nor the oil spill affected the bountiful harvest of seafood over Easter. Health conscious visitors and locals alike were cheered to see ample supplies of spanner crabs, Moreton Bay bugs, scallops, fish of all sorts and Mooloolaba prawns. With the regional authorities announcing that seafood from the coast was safe to eat, diners eagerly consumed the bounty.

With colder weather on its way, there will be plenty of great deals on Sunshine Coast accommodation in the coming months. Thanks to the warm, dry climate of the coast in winter, it's certain to be a draw for tourists as it is all year round.