With the cost of living pressures still squeezing many households and petrol prices high, you might have been holding your breath too.

But for anyone on the Far South Coast this weekend experiencing the traffic, it was apparent it was set to be a good weekend for local businesses.

Sitting on Narooma's surf beach on Easter Saturday there was definitely a holiday vibe happening. Narooma Surf Life Saving Club captain Claudia Ferguson confirmed this with the post-weekend statistics.

"Our patrol captains record beach attendance in the morning, midday and in the afternoon at the end of their patrol. This year's figures certainly reflect a busy weekend."

She reported the previous weekend's combined figures, for both days, as 48 beachgoers during the hours the beach was patrolled.

Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday saw this combined figure expand to 615 beachgoers over these two days, with 910 over the four-day break.

"Thankfully no rescues were performed," Claudia added.

Coming into the Easter period poses questions for hospitality and tourism-based operations. When to open and for how long? How many staff will be needed? How many staff on penalty rates can be afforded?

For JJ's at the Marina, a popular seafood restaurant in Batemans Bay located at d'Albora Marina, the decision was a no-brainer.

Their usual trading hours were strictly adhered to, meaning they were closed Sunday for dinner and all day Monday.

"We are a bit religious about our trading hours so we stuck to the norm. But we were ready. We didn't look at what other businesses were doing. We focused heavily on making sure staff would be coming to work over the period," owner Jacob Crooke reported.

"If they wanted to work I told them to 'come on in'. We see it as a bit of a bonus for them," he said.

It paid off in spades.

"Yeah we easily doubled on last year's figures. We did 2200 transactions, which probably equates to 2500 - 3000 customers. We were fully booked, but accommodated about 50 per cent of the walk-ins. But we probably turned away 500 or so." Jacob confirmed.

He put this increase down to three factors.

This year the Easter weekend sat outside of the NSW and ACT school holidays, effectively giving families an additional opportunity to holiday, the weather outlook was good and proved to be great, and confidence.

Was this consumer confidence?

"Yes. Confidence that interest rates may have levelled out for a bit. Confidence to travel.

"Last year it translated to people going overseas after not being able to for a while, but now they are jumping in the car and coming here. That's our theory anyway," Jacob clarified.

Although JJ's does not capture the origin of every customer, they can do good estimates through a combination of their booking system and staff asking at the till.

"There were definitely more Victorians around this year - maybe because it was the start of their school holidays. Our estimate is 50 per cent Canberrans, 30 per cent Victorians, 15 per cent Sydney and five per cent everywhere else."

At d'Albora Marina in Batemans Bay, operations manager Mitch Chaffey also reported a spike.

"Most weekends we would see about 10 per cent of boat owners using their boats. Over Easter 40 per cent of boats would have gone out," he reported.

"The whole Bay was pretty hectic - jam packed."