In the past month, the region lost millions of dollars in economic benefit with wild weather forcing the cancellation of two major music festivals, Yours and Owls in North Wollongong and the Red Hot Summer Tour in Kiama.

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Destination Kiama's Acting Tourism and Events Manager, Sally Bursell, said the relentless rain had been another setback for the industry, which had experienced significant disruptions during the pandemic, but over the last four months accommodation bookings were solid.

"In saying that, there is a lot of recovery still to be done and with Easter around the corner we are still looking forward to hopefully experiencing a much-needed boost," she said.

Reports from the Kiama Visitor Information Centre show the area was heavily booked for the school holiday period, though there were still some limited availability.

Novotel's general manager Ajay Vaid said they had expected a high number of cancellations for the weekend Yours and Owls was schedule but instead the hotel was at 90 per cent occupancy.

"What the weather has been for last six weeks has put a bit of a dampener on things but our numbers tell a different story," he said.

"There's still a lot of hesitation for people to book overseas holidays with confidence, so Wollongong [and other regional areas are] probably the second best option."

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Mr Vaid said the April holidays was also tracking to be above 80 per cent occupancy, with incentives like discounts for longer stays, the Stay NSW vouchers for travel and campaigns by Destination Wollongong (DW) promoting what the region has to offer have helped.

"We are getting increased travel demand from leisure events ... but we're also seeing a lot of strength coming from meeting and events, social events, weddings, corporate clients doing their conferences," he said.

Over four million Australians are planning a trip away this Easter with $7.1 billion to be spent on holidays nationally, while 63 per cent will be travelling within their own state, according to joint research by Australian Retailers Association and Roy Morgan.

They also found holiday-makers aged 35-49 were the most likely to have a family in tow, and were set to spend an average of $2,000 on their travels.

"Easter traditionally is a very busy weekend and operators were looking forward to moving towards winter with a great weekend; forward bookings on weekends are also strong and heading back towards pre-COVID levels," said Mark Sleigh, general manager for DW.

"The great opportunity for Wollongong is its proximity to Sydney and access to a population of over five million people looking for new experiences and short breaks out of the city."

He said while wet weather could cause some cancellations, the region also had a high visitation from day-trippers and short stays booked at last minute.

"When the sun comes out, no doubt they will be looking towards Wollongong and the South Coast as a great option to get out of the house, enjoy great food, new experiences and make the most of all the great things the Illawarra has to offer," Mr Sleigh said.

As of late last week, campgrounds at national parks along the coast had limited availability for the school holidays, while this was also the case at Tourist Parks in Bulli, Windang and Corrimal.

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"As restrictions have eased, we've seen that residents and visitors are wanting to get out and travel again," said a spokeswoman for Wollongong City Council, who operates the Tourist Parks.

"There are still opportunities for last minute bookings across our parks. Public and school holiday periods traditionally provide more opportunity for people to travel, and the Easter holiday period is generally one of our busier periods at Tourist Parks."

Of those people not heading away at Easter, home DIY might a way to spend the long-weekend.

"We also anticipate that DIYs around the home and garden will be popular this Easter long weekend - it's the last break many people will have before winter sets in," said Paul Zahra, CEO of the Australian Retailers Association.

"People who aren't going away traditionally use this time to upgrade things around the house that they've been putting off for months due to their busy work schedules."

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