The local tourism industry is seeing signs of life as a date is announced for the resumption of regional travel, but concern remains over the health implications of allowing people to move freely around NSW.
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Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed on Wednesday morning regional travel around NSW would be permitted from June 1.
Jenni Reithmuller, who runs the Belisi Farmstay Cottage at Eunanoreenya, was optimistic about the announcement after losing nearly an entire month of back-to-back bookings in April.
"It was incredibly difficult and quiet over that period but we're just starting to see the bookings come in now... even as far forward as October."
She said accommodation bookings were a good sign for the wider Wagga economy with visitors set to spend across the city.
"It's great to see that the bookings are coming through because you know it's going to filter through to all those businesses as well," she said.
Ms Reithmuller said while the optimism around the travel industry was returning quicker than expected, most people booking were still clearly concerned about the possibility of having to cancel should there be a second wave of the coronavirus outbreak.
However, she said the region had a major opportunity as restrictions begun to ease, with Australians encouraged to travel within their own states rather than head overseas.
"It's a great opportunity for our region to make hay while the sun shines, so to speak," she said.
"The people that do choose to visit regional NSW I think will be pleasantly surprised and will talk, and hopefully encourage other people to visit as well when they discover what is actually out there."
Snowy Valleys councillor Geoff Pritchard has previously warned of "another Ruby Princess (cruise ship) disaster" should the government move too soon on regional travel.
While he said he understood the economic reasons for the move, he was still concerned the government did not have a great enough ability to trace travellers to safely manage the higher risk of rural outbreaks.
"The numbers of the infection is down and we have to get the economy moving and I can see that there's a need for it, but its essentially important that we don't drop our guard," he said.
"It's fanciful to think that the virus has gone away, it won't.
"It will reappear and significantly and if you can't trace them well, you've got troubles."
He said the major concern was a lack of ability to record the movements of travellers to the region, with the COVIDSafe app not able to pick up all possible means of transmission across all people once fully operational.
Cr Pritchard said while he believed it was "reasonable" to open up travel region by region, he was concerned a blanket rule across the state was too fast, too soon.
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