Dungog Council's Tourism Development Officer Belinda Blanch manned the Visitor's Information Centre (VIC) over the weekend.

Ms Blanch said that the numbers were up from previous years.

"The number of visitors to the VIC are up considerably from 2023 across the board," she said.

"As always Dungog Shire put on a truly authentic rural experience weekend for Easter which was enjoyed by many, with a higher than usual number of visitors and locals out and about enjoying the beautiful weather.

"This year Easter was before the school holidays; this saw many people making day trips to the Shire for bushwalking, events like Dungog Rodeo and Gresford Billy Cart Derby. The rodeo was a particularly well attended event with over 8500 people in attendance. The billy cart derby was definitely the place to be on Saturday morning."

Alongside the two major events, Dugong also hosted a number of other events like the antique car rally and an organised recreational motorbike club using the shire as a destination.

Ms Blanch sees public holidays like Easter and Christmas as prime opportunities to market the town of Dungog to tourists across the country.

"Public holidays provide a great opportunity to attract new people to town who may not otherwise visit and it provides us an opportunity to promote our town and region," she said.

"Public holidays also boost the economy through increased consumer spending particularly in the hospitality sector where people generally take the opportunity to travel and visit friends and family or engage in leisure activities.

"The downside is that public holidays can disrupt supply chains and increase wage pressure on business. If businesses are required to close on public holidays a loss of revenue can occur. However, this year regional NSW will benefit from two significant breaks with the school holidays coming close on the heels of Easter."

This sentiment is mirrored by the president of Dungog's Chamber of Commerce Therese McIntyre. "It's a fantastic boost to business," she said.

Operating her cafe, The Dungog Trading Post, Ms McIntyre saw huge crowds stop in for a coffee and a bite to eat. "Saturday was a really lovely atmosphere. People wanted to relax and enjoy the sunshine and have breakfast in Dungog," she said. "The whole town was pumping. I'm pretty sure Dungog would have received some really good kudos."