Kryal Castle hope to welcome tourists to their annual Baroque horse festival

Director of experiences Phillip Leitch said the summer weeks had lived up to their expectations as a busy time with young families visiting.

"Numbers are high and we've had a very happy bunch of people coming through the gates," he said.

Alongside Kryal Castle both Sovereign Hill and the Wildlife Park were open right through the summer.

Tourism numbers in town are slowly getting back to 2019 levels.

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Tourism Research Australia's National Visitor Survey for the year ending September 2022 found spend in the city was over 2019 levels.

But Ballarat Regional Tourism chief executive Sarah Myers said this was both a positive sign and a reflection of inflation pressures.

Ballarat's overnight stay data was not inline with other comparable towns in the region.

Ms Myers said she was advocating for a team effort to address the lag and to "ensure that our events calendar is optimised".

Mr Leitch said the events were not over at Kryal Castle.

As students organise to return to school this week, key Ballarat tourism locations hope 2023 will be more certain and events can be 100 per cent locked in.

After a three year COVID-19 hiatus, the Baroque horse festival is returning to Kryal Castle.

The team are looking forward to welcoming their end of February event back.

"You can quite safely put them on the calendar without wondering if they will even go ahead," he said.

"There were lots of events that were prepared for and then had to be closed down at the last minute."

The festival focuses on a period of European history between the 16th and 18th centuries where arts "reached new heights", Mr Leitch said.

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He said volunteers from different states including New South Wales and South Australia travel to take part.

"People that own these types of horses [who are] wanting to put on displays to showcase them ... it's about gathering them all when we can."

"This has been the first time we've really been able to fit it into the calendar and do it."

Mr Leitch said his favorite part of the festival was the end of the last ride of the day where all the horses are in the arena at once.

"It's just a fun part of the day at the end," he said.

Tickets are necessary for this event, it will be held on Saturday February 18 and Sunday 19.

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