Sydney people are ready to holiday in Orange with accommodation bookings received within minutes of travel restrictions being lifted.
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Bnb Made Easy owner Tim Mortimer said he received eight bookings for Orange accommodation in 30 minutes on Tuesday night after the coronavirus ban was eased.
"It was just like the floodgates have opened," he said.
Mr Mortimer said the bookings for people to stay in Airbnb-style short-term rentals across Orange had grown to 15 by Wednesday morning.
He said about half of the bookings were for people to come to Orange from Monday June 1, when the bans are lifted, to the long weekend on June 6-8.
Orange Region Vignerons Association president Nicole Samodol said Orange wineries, through NSW Wine, were asking the government to relax restrictions to allow them to open for tastings for the tourist influx.
"We're hoping that we get the green light," she said.
Ms Samodol said people should book ahead for wine tastings so the wineries could manage the restriction on a maximum of 10 people on site at once. She said winery owners had been investing in online booking systems.
Ms Samodol said her winery, Rowlee Wines, was looking at taking hourly bookings for a 45-minute tasting session, giving them 15 minutes to clean everything for the next guests.
It was just like the floodgates have opened.
- Tim Mortimer, Bnd Made Easy
Museums, libraries and art galleries will also be able to open from June 1 and Orange City Council CEO David Waddell said staff were working to prepare the venues.
"We'll be ready to comply when the times comes, although arrangements in each of these venues will be different. Staff at the regional museum, for example, have spent time during the close-down preparing for the next exhibition," he said.
Orange360 general manager Caddie Marshall said she had received calls from accommodation providers seeking information about meeting coronavirus rules.
"There will be new capacity restrictions. There are cleaning protocols. We have had some enquiries on 'how many can we have staying in one Airbnb property," she said.
Business NSW regional manager Western NSW Vicki Seccombe said it would boost regional businesses.
She called on the government to ease restrictions on hospitality businesses in regional NSW to help them out.
"While there are still a number of restrictions in place for many of our hospitality businesses, we expect these to ease and we urge the NSW government to ease restrictions in line with welcoming visitors to regional NSW," she said.
Member for Orange Phil Donato has also called for hospitality restrictions to be lifted.
He said Orange pubs and clubs needed to be open to service the tourists.
Mr Donato said hardware stores had been busy while pubs, clubs and restaurants had been shut.
"It seems that nails are more important than ales to the Liberal government," he said.
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