Local tourism businesses are seeing more visitors than expected this wet season, with NT residents encouraged to explore their own backyard.
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Travel and tourism endured a difficult 2020 around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but some Katherine operators saw improvement at the end of the year.
Knott's Crossing Resort general manager Joanna Pace went as far to say it was their best year ever.
"We've ended up having one of the best years we've ever had."
Ms Pace said initiatives like the NT Government's tourism vouchers and opportunities to help quarantine new arrivals were central to their success.
"We really took advantage of absolutely everything that was available to us," she said.
The vouchers were particularly successful during the Christmas and New Year period according to Ms Pace, who described the usually quiet festive season as the "busiest time ever".
"We had an occupancy here of 30 percent (in 2019) we're looking at around 70 percent (in 2020)," she said.
Ms Pace said while some interstate visitors have travelled to Katherine, most guests have come from somewhere else in the NT.
"We have a special on the vouchers a lot of them are coming from Darwin... predominantly Territorians."
The success of the vouchers has been backed up by other operators in Katherine.
The Katherine Times spoke to several local businesses, and many said they'd seen unusually high turnover due to NT residents using their vouchers in the town.
A Riverview Tourist Village spokeswoman said their 18 cabins and nine motel rooms were fully booked over the Christmas period.
"Nearly all cabins used vouchers, there was even one group of eight," the spokeswoman said.
One of Katherine's interstate visitors is Pat McAllister from Melbourne.
"I'm on holiday visiting a friend at the moment," Mr McAllister said.
He said the NT's relative freedom from COVID-19 and natural beauty were other reasons to visit.
"It's great to be out of lockdown," he said.
"Get to explore Australia a little bit more... we've been visiting a bunch of natural attractions up here."
Mr McAllister said he's enjoying his stay, even though he struggles with the wet season's humidity.
"It's a bit of a shock to the system, haven't stopped sweating for probably twelve days."
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