The majority of Wollongong's major tourist attractions will be open this week, with many restarting operations as eased restrictions come in on Monday.
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That will include Skydive resuming jumps over North Wollongong beach from June 4, Symbio opening its doors and the Friday Forage market returning to Wollongong Mall.
However, 22 of the attractions - including museums like the Science Space and Early Start, the WIN Entertainment Centre and the Illawarra Fly - remain closed until further notice according to Destination Wollongong.
Destination Wollongong general manger Mark Sleigh said he was buoyed by the many businesses reopening after a tough time for the region's small operators.
"The easing of restrictions came a lot quicker than anyone expected, and that can only be a positive for small business locally," he said.
"From June 1, food and beverage operations will also be able to move towards scale... and I think it will be a real sign of confidence in the local visitor economy when Skydive recommences on Thursday."
"There's no doubt that the tourism and hospital industry has been decimated, and 95 per cent of tourism businesses are small businesses," he said.
"They haven't had cash flow for the last six months, and they need our support, the cash flow and the tills to be ticking over immediately."
He said the region was well placed to benefit from the domestic tourism "boom" which will flow due to overseas travel being limited.
"Domestic tourism will boom, it has to boom because people can't leave the country and they still want to have holidays," he said.
"Given our proximity to Sydney we are perfectly placed to make the most of that, especially with a long weekend coming up."
But Mr Sleigh also warned would-be travellers to have patience and remember that there may be changed conditions, delays and unavailabilities in place for sometime.
"We need the community to have patience, this is a post-COVID environment and things aren't going to be the same as they were before," he said.
I would urge people to get out sensibly and support small business - and there's never been a more important time to do that.
- Mark Sleigh
"I would urge people to get out sensibly and support small business - and there's never been a more important time to do that, whether you do that in local community or further down the coast where they've also been affected by fires and floods this year.
"But please be patient with people - small businesses are hurting, but they are desperate to serve as many people as they can."
On Friday, Skydive's parent company Experience Co (EXP) announced its gradual reopening to the Australian stock exchange, saying jumps had recommenced in Queenstown and would restart at Australian sites throughout June.
Acknowledging the difficult circumstances, CEO John O'Sullivan said an uncertain future remained for the company in the coming months.
"At the time of suspending operations we noted that we were not in a position to forecast with any level of certainty the duration nor recovery profile from this pandemic," he said.
"This remains the case and our continued strategy is to minimise short-term cash outflows.
"We are cautiously excited about recommencing our operations all the while recognising that the emergence is likely to be protracted and will require a sustained level of resilience across the business."
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
