The ease of NSW restrictions combined with the long-awaited announcement that the border to Victoria will re-open from November 23 has given the city's hospitality and accommodation businesses cause for celebration.
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Big 4 Caravan Park owner Martin Cotterell told The Daily Advertiser his phones had been ringing off the hook ahead of the usual Christmas rush.
"Things are really improving, but we're not back to where we were last year," he said.
"We are seeing a lot of people from Victoria coming through, but what we really need is the events to come back."
During the height of the lockdown in June, Mr Cotterell said, the caravan park was seeing "about 10 per cent of the usual" crowd coming through. Now, it is back to "75 per cent of what we'd have last year".
"I didn't really expect it would come back this quick," Mr Cotterell said.
"[In June] I was despondent, it was a complete unknown. I've been doing this for 20 years, I've really seen it all but I wouldn't have ever dreamed of something like this [pandemic] happening."
Mr Cotterell now describes himself as feeling "confident for the next few years".
"A lot of people are wanting to travel, they want to get back to see their families, they want to come out to the country and we're getting some of the overflow from the coastal areas that are already full," he said.
At Cartwrights Hill, the owner of the Horseshoe Tourist Park, Richard Griffith, said it was a matter of having to "wait and see" if the business would pick up with borders re-opening.
"Our busiest time was when we had to be closed in March, April and May," Mr Griffith said.
"We re-opened in June then the second wave hit [Victoria] and we were very quiet again."
Pub licensee and general manager of the Palm and Pawn Tavern Ossie Sutton said he would be crossing his fingers for even greater relaxation of restrictions in December.
"It's a struggle capping [the restaurant] at 300 [when] we can normally go to 500 or 600 especially over Christmas," Mr Sutton said.
"We're definitely waiting for more restrictions to be lifted, that will ease it up a fair bit."
While the eatery has been "flat out and booked out" for weeks, the tavern's accommodation, Mr Sutton said, has "slowed down a fair bit".
"We normally get a lot of contractors here, and maybe it's because work has dried up a bit but we're not as busy," he said.