Wollongong’s winter wonderland melted the hearts of the young and old who enjoyed ice-skating on top of the Novotel Northbeach rooftop on Sunday.
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The synthetic ice rink was particularly popular with young and novice skaters, who used penguins to minimise falling over.
While there is no actual ice, identical skates are used to glide over the treated surface just like you would over a frozen ice-rink.
Novotel manager Steve Savic said sessions will be held throughout July, with tickets including skate hire.
Themed food and drink will also be available, from fairy floss to novelty hot chocolates.
‘’The aim is to turn Wollongong into a bit of a winter wonderland that will hopefully grow over the years and spread throughout the city,’’ Mr Savic said.
‘’This is our way activating Wollongong as a destination in winter, giving people a reason [that’s not beach-driven] to come to Wollongong.
‘’For far too long we’ve kind of accepted that beach side destinations should shut up shop over winter and you try and get through as best you can.
‘’So the focus for us was to try and give people a reason to come south and to come to a beach side venue.’’
He said early indications show the approach is working.
‘’We’ve certainly seen there has been a massive amount of interest in the online space. We’ve had huge interest in it.
‘’We’ve got bloggers and media people coming and talking about it every day. They are coming to stay and visit.
‘’We’ve had significant social media reach which has been fantastic. Probably one of our key outcomes was about getting social media attention for the region, so that’s been ticked well and truly.’’
Ticket sales have also been ‘’amazingly strong’’.
Mr Savic said the plan was to run about 10 sessions per day.
‘’We can fit about 100 people per session so there’s plenty of opportunity for people to get skating,’’ he said.
