School holiday events in Canberra's city centre brought in an additional $1.8 million towards nearby cafes, restaurants, shops and transport, organisers have revealed.
The City Renewal Authority said its Winter in the City events drew in 20 per cent more attendees than the previous year and there were 30 per cent more visitors in Civic than in the 2022 winter holidays.
The manager of East Row Speciality Coffee, Emily Mills, said a combination of things led to the increased customer numbers coming through their doors over the period of time.
"Our main demographic is public servants, being located where we are in the city, as well as people who want somewhere to go to get a good coffee, and occasionally come to celebrate things," she said.
"Over the two weeks, we got a lot more kids and a lot more families, that's for sure.
"There was definitely a lot more foot traffic as a result too, but that is also due to a lot more places having opened up since last year."
More than 24,000 locals and visitors attended the Winter in the City events, which included an outdoor ice-skating rink, eight metre toboggan slide and night-time dance parties, the organisers said.
The City Renewal Authority's director of place experience Jennifer Ramsey said they were "planning and hoping for increased attendance".
This was due to what was being offered at the event, she said.
"When a lot of families arrived, they were really surprised to see there was actually real snow there. A lot of comments we heard were 'I thought my teenagers weren't going to enjoy this, but even they loved it'," she said.
Ms Ramsey said the event this year looked to encourage visitors to spend more time in the city as a whole, as well as attending the events.
"We incorporated business offers, we worked with local business providers to provide one off business deals so we were hoping that people can come into the city and make a day of it," she said.
"So they come in and they enjoy Winter in the City, then grab lunch at a local restaurant or they might do some of their back to school shopping. So really to provide more experiences and more to do in the space."
A survey conducted by the Canberra Business Chamber on business sentiment this year said 45.61 per cent of the 100 participants felt their business situation had slightly improved from the beginning of 2022.
It also revealed 48.12 per cent of respondents are somewhat confident about their business improving in the next 12 months, while 15.79 per cent are very confident and 24.56 per cent were neutral.
Canberra Business Chamber chair Archie Tsirimokos said in April the responses were much more positive than he had anticipated.
"Coming off the last year, business have started to raise their heads above the impacts of the pandemic ... [but] there certainly are dark clouds still around with inflation and the cost of living," he said.
Despite the improvements to businesses since the pandemic and especially over the winter school holiday period, Ms Mills said things aren't completely back to normal yet.
"It kind of changes and it can be a little unpredictable and I think that is common in this area and with other businesses," she said.
"I've spoken to other business owners around and they have said a similar thing, some days it is going to be quiet and other days you are going to get slammed, and you just don't know.
"In saying that though, things have certainly been much more positive in here recently. I'm expecting good things in the future."
