South Coast banks on Christmas boom bringing tourists back to beaches

In an effort to boost tourism in the hard hit regions, double-vaccinated Canberrans travelling across the border won't be required to isolate inside when travelling to areas not in lockdown.

If vaccine uptake continues as predicted, there will be one weekend between lockdown ending in the ACT and the bordering state opening up in the third week of October.

NSW Cross-Border commissioner James McTavish said while surging cases in Victoria and outbreaks in the regions could change things, travel for ACT residents had been decided this week and an announcement would be made when NSW hit 70 per cent, expected after the long weekend.

Businesses on the South Coast are shouting out to Canberra residents to have faith this Christmas and book holiday travel, with some caravan parks offering full COVID refunds as reassurance.

BIG4 Narooma Easts Holiday Park was one such park, dealt a further blow from the announcement the ACT would stay locked up for the September school break.

Owner Teaghan Abbott said ACT residents had begun making Christmas bookings which provided some security to staff at the family-run business.

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"A lot of people are hoping that as soon as everyone's out of lockdown they can get down here as quickly as possible," she said.

"It's pretty tough at the moment, obviously we're a holiday park so we love having guests down here, so to have an empty park is pretty sad."

Part of the Eurobodalla Shire Council, Narooma entered lockdown alongside the rest of regional NSW on August 14. While restrictions have been lifted for much of the state, cases linked to an outbreak in Batemans Bay has kept the seaside town from opening up.

Neither of the popular holiday spots recorded a case of coronavirus in the past reporting period, although a case was detected in Moruya.

There were 27 new cases recorded in the Southern NSW Local Health District as a whole, which covers the region from Crookwell in the north and surrounds to the ACT on three sides.

There has been 223 cases of coronavirus in the health district since the start of the current outbreak in June.

Ms Abbott said everyone on the South Coast was doing it tough at the moment.

"It's obviously not just affecting us, it's all the restaurants and cafes, as well as charter boats and other businesses," Ms Abbott said.

Eurobodalla Council planning director Lindsay Usher said the region was keen to welcome Canberrans back once the local government area opened up.

"It's been a rough few months of lockdowns, but we can see freedom ahead and thoughts are turning to Christmas holidays," Mr Usher said.

About 70 kilometres down the coast, tourism at Tathra was beginning to start back up this week, after lockdown ended for the Bega Valley Shire last Thursday.

Lockdown was lifted after two cases detected in Merimbula were found to be false-positives. The discovery meant the shire maintained its run of no new cases in more than a year.

Tathra Business Chamber President Carmen Risby said operating in a COVID safe manner meant some indoor activities had been cancelled but there was plenty to keep holidaymakers busy.

"There's over 150 beautiful beaches on the Sapphire Coast, endless mountain bike trails and heaps of bushwalking," she said.

"There's so much opportunity to get out in nature and socially distance that we're really focusing holidays on that."

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A co-owner of Tathra Beachside caravan park, Ms Risby said the phone had been ringing with families eager to get away as soon as regional NSW began opening up.

"People are making bookings and other people are reinstating booking they'd cancelled," she said.

"It's evolving every day, we just have to keep abreast of all the changes pivot and change at the click of a button."

Ms Risby said Christmas at Tathra was set to be a busy one, with travel restrictions between NSW and Victoria the last bastion for them being completely booked.

"Everyone has their fingers and toes crossed to be allowed to open for people to be able to dine out again and go and get a beer or a coffee without having to be completely masked up," she said.

"It's starting to warm up, the waters beautiful and there are whales in absolute abundance.

"The mountain bike trails are freshly groomed and the hiking is incredible.

"There's so much for people to do and ways for people to be immersed in nature that businesses are just counting on being open."

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