Changes to border restrictions between NSW and Victoria have been welcomed by Anthony Osborne at Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
From Monday, January 18 at 6pm Bega Valley is now in the Green Zone which means all Victorians can return from the Sapphire Coast with a permit, but no requirement to test and isolate.
"Hopefully this stimulates visitation and gives confidence to visitors from Victoria to stick with their plans in the coming months," Mr Osborne said.
"It will take some of the anxiety out of the situation but it's still a challenging landscape," he said.
But he admitted that despite the earlier border confusion, there had "been a noticeable buzz around the region over the last week or so which is great news".
The challenging landscape is one that the Merimbula EAT Festival is also facing. The popular March festival sees thousands of visitors head to Fishpen to taste the best of local produce.
But this year it will have to be different. However the organising committee has come up with an alternative plan.
"Heaving crowds and high density crushes that are the hallmarks of EAT, simply won't cut it with socially distant aware punters this year. So instead of bringing the foodies to us, we want to send them "on tour", the organisers said.
The aim is to bring the EAT festival to the whole of the Sapphire Coast, encouraging foodie fans to travel between towns and villages for bespoke foodie experiences, rather than staying on Fishpen.
Organisers plan to run the festival over four days from Friday, March 5 to Monday, March 8 and call it EAT on Tour.
The idea is that restaurants, cafes, retailers and producers develop their own food or wine tasting events that will be promoted via a special trail map.
Mr Osborne said it was a really commendable effort for the organisers to come up with an alternative.
"It's up to everyone to get involved but I think it's a great alternative to what's been done before and might even add layers to future EAT Festivals," Mr Osborne said.
He has reminded all tourism businesses to fill in the border closure impact survey which can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VSQPWP5.
"The economic impact data from our torrid month will be critical in establishing a business case for future support," Mr Osborne said.