School holidays reimagined as Questacon and zoo feel Covid effect

National institutions, including Questacon, have seen a return of local families after interstate visitors were forced to give up tickets.

Traditionally one of the busiest periods for the science and technology centre, with up to 50,000 visitors over the two-week period, the July school holidays took a major turn when Sydney went into lockdown.

Already capped at 350 visitors per day compared to 3500 pre-Covid, Questacon was inundated with cancellations as cases linked to the Bondi cluster climbed.

Questacon programs manager Elisha Hammond said the science centre was fortunate they were able to relist tickets, which have mostly been snapped up by locals.

"We knew these holidays would look quite different to pre-Covid holidays for us, we didn't necessarily anticipate the number of cancellations that we have had," she said.

Questacon can now only sell 4900 tickets across the two-week school holiday period, in compliance with government guidelines.

With so few cases of coronavirus outside of Victoria this year pre-June, Ms Hammond said staff had been hoping the restrictions on daily attendance could be lifted.

"We probably were expecting that we would start to see visitation increase and start to see an increase in those numbers, but obviously the change in restrictions has meant that we haven't been able to just yet," she said.

"It's very disappointing for a lot of people who had to cancel due to those travel restrictions, but really great to see that they're doing the right thing and following the advice."

The National Zoo and Aquarium hadn't quite picked up the local tourism this week, with numbers reportedly down 53 per cent on the comparative period.

The National Gallery of Australia also had a relatively quiet first week of school holidays. Staff said the drop in numbers was a return to normal after the high of the Masterpieces exhibition. Botticelli to Van Gogh had drawn record crowds for the gallery, prior to wrapping up after the Queen's Birthday long weekend.

A favourite winter attraction which continued to attract crowds this week was Wintervention, reporting similar attendance to the same period in 2019. Since opening up last Friday, more than 4500 tickets had been sold for the pop-up ice rink in Civic.

A City Renewal Authority spokesman said it was great to see people spending time in the city centre, despite in the introduction of a mask mandate in the ACT on Monday.

"Covid has had a significant impact on the city's foot traffic, which in turn impacts local businesses and our community," the spokesman said.

"We have already received positive feedback from some local traders that they have seen an increase in visitors through their doors."

Hospitality venues across Canberra also had a mixed week of trading, with Lonsdale Street venues reporting a drop in foot traffic since the NSW outbreak.

With face masks required at many public spaces this week, confidence in dining out appeared to take a hit.

Rye Cafe owner Gurmeet Singh said they had seen a 50 per cent drop in revenue since Sydney began its lockdown.

"With this mask mandate in Canberra it has escalated further and I think we are down about 80 per cent in revenue," he said.

On the other side of town masks didn't seem to matter, with Capital brewery rostering on extra staff for the weekend to serve Canberrans unable to travel.

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