Travel bugs will be able to pack their bags and hit the road as step three of regional Victoria's 'roadmap to COVID Normal' kicks off.
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The Department of Health and Human Services has confirmed the re-opening of camping grounds and caravan parks.
Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner of regional operations Rick Nugent introduced a hefty $4957 for metro-regional unlawful travel as regional Victorians welcome back region-to-region travel within their household bubbles ahead of the September school holidays.
"The easing of restrictions in these areas will see increased people in homes, increased public gatherings, and will open pubs, clubs, restaurants and bars," he said. "There will also be the opening of hairdressing salons and the opening of caravan parks and camping grounds."
Surfside Holiday Park will welcome regional camping guests from Monday, September 21.
The accommodation provider has a strict COVID safe plan including licence checks. The camp kitchen will remain closed and additional cleaning of shared facilities such as bathrooms rooms will be carried out. Access to toilets will be via a pin code only.
Warrnambool City Council runs the park and a spokesman said Surfside would not be able to open to its full capacity over summer.
"With regard to traditional summer bookings we know we will not be able to open at full capacity," the spokesman said.
"As soon as we receive clear guidelines for summer from the Victorian government we will advise those who had made bookings for the 2020-2021 summer."
Gum Tree Caravan Park owner Peter McCallum was thrilled his business would be able to accommodate camping, caravans and cabin travellers.
"We're back to business as usual on our operation side," he said. "We can operate up to capacity and it'll be up to our bookings to see how we're going.
"We're operating with a limited market though with no Melbourne, interstate or internationals but it's great to see our economy kicking off again and hopefully Melbourne isn't too far from joining in on the fun."
Mr McCallum said he'd had a promising start to the September school holidays with people making bookings and enquiries after Tuesday's step three of the roadmap announcement.
"We got a few enquiries and it was good start I think, we had a few enquiries from up in the Goldfields area," he said.
"I don't expect to see too many people travel through Melbourne, I expect they'll stay in their own area and head to Gippsland areas like Lakes Entrance.
"Hopefully we can keep moving forward without too many hiccups and have some normality by Christmas."
Great Ocean Road Tourism general manager Liz Price said the easing of restrictions was a lifeline for the tourism industry which came to a standstill at the beginning of the pandemic.
"We are hoping the school holidays will deliver some much needed relief to the region especially accommodation businesses and businesses in towns that rely very heavily on visitors," she said.
"The domestic market is geared around traveling on weekends, school and public holidays and these school holidays are critical to delivering cash flow to support many businesses trying to survive through to summer."
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said some shared facilities in campgrounds still posed a risk in spreading the virus.
"Within regional Victoria you will be able to holiday across the state," he said.
"But many experiences will have to look a bit different."
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