The latest figures from industry research firm, Tourism Solutions, confirm visitor numbers were growing earlier this year, compared to past years.

Orange Mayor Reg Kidd said the long-term tourism trends offer hope for businesses in the region.

"It's no secret that some local businesses are doing it tough while Sydney has been in lockdown," Cr Kidd said.

"Up until then, regional centres within three or four hours' drive of Sydney have been making the most of Australians not being able to fly overseas.

"Going back a few months, we had every room full and restaurants booked out well in advance. But that came to a halt with the Sydney lockdown."

According to the research, Orange hosted 438,000 overnight visitors in the year to March 2021, a 16 per cent increase on the 2020 figure.

It also indicated visitors are staying longer with an estimated 1.3 million nights, 48 per cent up on the previous year. The average length of stay is up to three nights, which saw spending rise to an estimated $309 million in the 12-month period to March 2021.

During the same period there were 507,000 day visitors. These results compare favourably with similar local government areas, which were down 16 per cent.

The rest of Central NSW was down 4 per cent over the same period.

According to the data there were 126,000 visitors to Orange in the three months leading to March 2021.

The council's Employment and Economic Development Committee chairman Cr Tony Mileto said the health of Orange's visitor economy was good news for businesses in other sectors.

"The longer people stay, the more likely it is that they'll drop by major retailers and local traders," he said.

"What we're hearing from local operators is that while Sydney visitors have stopped travelling during lockdown, that gap has largely been filled by people from other parts of NSW."

He said that led to Orange360 marketing to places outside of Sydney.

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