Good quality, high snowfall means this winter has been particularly busy in Jindabyne and the Kosciuszko National Park.

After a slow and disappointing previous two winter seasons, businesses received a much-needed boost in patronage this season as the snowfall continued until closing weekend.

Birchwood café owner, Laura Stamp, has had a very successful few months and said they have noticed more people entering their café this season especially compared to the last two winters.

“Our numbers are now very close to what we saw during the 2022 season, which is great,” Ms Stamp said.

“It’s been a positive shift, with more tourists, locals, and people just out and about enjoying the mountains again, there’s been more energy in the air this season.

“A good snow season always brings solid visitor numbers, and after two years of low snow and slower trade, this year felt like a welcome relief.”

She said it was great to see Jindabyne so busy again, the region really depends on strong winter trade and this year mother nature listened.

“I don’t know how many businesses could have handled a third quiet season in a row, this season came at the right time for a lot of us,” Ms Stamp said.

“It was important to have a good season this year, winter is what keeps things going into summer for many businesses, as the next few months are usually very slow till Christmas/New Year.

“The trade has been much more consistent and predictable, which is honestly all you can ask for. Our staff were happy, had plenty of work right through to the end, and had great days up the mountain.

“That balance matters to us. They’re here to experience a snow season too, and we love seeing them enjoy it.”

Transport for NSW ran a bus service from Cooma and Jindabyne to the ski fields over winter which also saw a rise in numbers this season compared to previous seasons.

A National Parks and Wildlife Services spokesperson said sales of day passes for entry to Kosciuszko National Park are up 48 per cent from last year.

Retail and hardware store, Mitre 10 Jindabyne management said while business is slow in their building sector, they did notice with more road closures this season more people came into their retail section on the weekends.

“As the building sector has reduced drastically, our trade has been down. This is as a direct result of the steep increase in building costs and the Snowy Mountains Special Activation Precinct’s (SAP) reduced funding to the area,” management said.

“On the busy weekends when the roads were blocked early, we saw quite a number of extra people in town, especially family and small bus groups just wandering around with not much to do.”

With more visitors in town this season businesses noticed the real need for extra parking as a crucial thing for the town infrastructure.

Mitre 10 management said the parking in town is still critical and not visitor friendly for those who choose the bus option to get to the resorts.

“A safe longer term parking area for “park and ride” is needed to help encourage this valuable service,” management said.

“We had many people park long term in our store customer parking area making it hard for our customers to get a park to shop.”

Jindabyne Chamber of Commerce president and local accommodation operator, Olivier Kapetanakos, said the good snow has been great for accommodation providers.

“The snow season started on time in June, which was fantastic. It took a lot of people by surprise, so visitation in June was ordinary, then visitation in July and August was very strong. I don’t think you’ll find too many accommodation providers with a lot of vacancies around that time, we certainly didn’t,” Mr Kapetanakos said.

“September was not the best, but the spring skiing was pretty good, until we got some rain, which then probably dissuaded a lot of people who may have come up for the last bit of the season.”

Mr Kapetanakos said feedback he received from cafes and restaurants was a different story, they were consistently busy seeing big numbers roll through their doors.

“One of the observations that I made, and I’ve heard repeated by other businesses, is this season there’s been a lot of day visitors,” Mr Kapetanakos said.

“There’s been some criticism that day visitors don’t spend a lot of money in the area because they bypass town and go straight to the snowfields, but this year the number of people walking around town and going down to the big chairlift and other places, was substantial.

“There’s been a new demographic of people coming through town this season as well, many who have never seen snow before and taken advantage of the good snow season to try out the slopes for the first time.”

Mr Kapetananos believes this season has shown businesses the green shoots of economic activity beyond just the winter season.

“We now have to find that activity that occurs in the shoulder periods to sustain businesses in the quieter months,” Mr Kapetanakos said.

“For that to happen, we need the Snowy Mountains SAP to deliver on the infrastructure promised.

“We need to be able to see our council spend more time and more money on tourism attractions in and around Jindabyne as well as the smaller towns.”