Following Prince Harry and Meghan’s tour of Australia, data from booking website Wotif.com shows travel interest for Dubbo has surged, with searches on the site jumping by close to 15 per cent.

Wotif Travel Expert, Chris Milligan was really excited to see people searching for Dubbo straight after the royal visit to the city.

“Immediately after the royal visit we saw searches for Dubbo jumping close to 15 per cent, which is a really good initial sign that royal fever rubbed off on a lot of Aussies,” he said.

The majority of the Wotif searches came from people in New South Wales, Mr Milligan said.

“So really positive signs that people are looking at driving holidays (to Dubbo) or sticking close to home,” he said.

“We also did see some interest from Queensland and Victoria.”

Mr Milligan said out of all the places Prince Harry and Meghan visited in Australia, Dubbo received a significant amount of media coverage, mainly due to the Duke’s hug with Luke Vincent and Meghan making banana bread for a local drought affected family.

“I think Dubbo put their best foot forward and had a lot of people considering it as a holiday destination,” he said.

With the school holidays and Christmas period almost here, Mr Mulligan said having that interest in Dubbo is great for local tourism.

“People are starting to think about following in the royals footsteps,” he said.

“Hopefully this (interest in Dubbo) can continue into the school holiday period and really see it as a benefit for the town. It would make us extremely happy.”

Thanks to the royal visit, Dubbo was even been put on the world map.

“It’s really good to see that even domestically Australian’s are willing to get out and go and explore their backyard a little bit more as well,” he said.

“There’s no doubt that it (Dubbo) is on the international map, but it’s really nice to see domestically as well.”

The royal visit and interest in Dubbo will help create a flow on effect to regional NSW, Mr Milligan said.

“From our research… Aussie’s see a local holiday as a way to support regional and rural communities,” he said.

“So I think Harry and Meghan getting out there and experiencing Dubbo really had that immediate affect on local tourism.”

Harry and Meghan’s visit to the farm and his speech in Victoria Park, which highlighted the drought, was also important and would hopefully have a flow on effect to surrounding towns doing it tough due to the dry.

“Dubbo isn’t that far, you look at Sydney and it’s a five hour drive. They can spend some time in Dubbo, they can spend some money in Dubbo and that really makes a material difference to people struggling with the drought,” he said.

The coverage of the Duke and Duchesses Dubbo tour highlighted the community spirit, Mr Milligan said.

“It really focused on the people in Dubbo and being a really welcoming community and I think that is a positive sign for the region too,” he said.