Before the late 1950s tourists stayed at hotels, boarding houses and camping grounds. As more people owned motor vehicles, motoring holidays and staying in motel accommodation became popular.  Port Macquarie’s first cabin style accommodation opened in the 1930s. It was decades later before the first motel, the Macquarie Motel, was built in 1957. The number of motels in Port Macquarie had reached 30 by the late 1960s.