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B RILLIA NT- ON LIN E AUGUS T 2021
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he amount of articles written about COVID-19 related issues are starting to get a bit tiresome and tedious, I know! It’s part of the new normal we are unfortunately having to get used to. So what’s this article about you ask, why do you have to hear more about the doom and gloom of the coronavirus and its effects on our lives?
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What if I was to say it’s not all doom and gloom, that life hasn’t ground to a halt, there is still so much to see and do, and getting out and about is still there for us to enjoy. How is that? Because we live in Regional Australia! More specifically the Holiday Coast… the 3rd most visited region in all of Australia! We all know how tough they are having it in the cities - if they aren’t locked down already then they know they can be at any given moment, largely due to the sheer number of people and having an international airport with new arrivals still coming in daily. One of the only negatives I can personally see out of what is currently happening in regional areas is the effect the pandemic is having on the Tourism Industry and small business in general. The one thing I think everyone can
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agree on is that international and, to some degree, interstate travel is going to take a fair amount of time to come back to some kind of version of ‘normal’. In some ways and for some operators, the travel restrictions in place have given regional areas a boost given that people simply can’t go anywhere else or are too scared to, worried that they may get stranded away from home with snap border closures or being present in a hotspot when COVID-19 strikes in an area. The ’safe’ thing to do is to stay within your own region, something that for some people is what they do anyway, apart from the occasional holiday abroad or interstate. Having been working in the regional tourism industry for 20+ years, one of my personal frustrations is hearing from locals comments such as “there’s nothing to do around here” or “I wish there was more to do around here” - I could go on! For the past 14 years I’ve made it a personal mission of mine to challenge these perceptions and work on creating awareness locally of all there is to see and do in my region. I do get it, in some way, why people are oblivious as to what tours and attractions are on their own doorstep. People are busy with work, school, family, kids, personal lives, sports
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