Families will be reunited and regional businesses will be full this coming weekend as Melbourne residents are allowed to travel to regional Victoria from 6pm Friday, October 29.
Regional businesses are now bracing for city tourists to flock to the regions for Melbourne Cup weekend.
Co-owner of the Apollo Bay Bakery, Sally Cannon, said she listened to the Premier's announcement with her sister "and we just squealed".
Ms Cannon said the Melbourne Cup weekend is traditionally a big one for Apollo Bay, a tourist town around 190 kilometres from Melbourne on the Great Ocean Road.
She said the community was also looking forward to welcoming back the Melbourne-based owners of holiday homes, seeing their familiar faces in the street.
"It'll feel like Christmas, that week between Christmas and New Year, it'll be just like that."
But Ms Cannon said she "squealed even louder" when Mr Andrews announced businesses would no longer need to stick to density limits and patron caps when the state vaccination rate reaches 90 per cent.
She said patrons this weekend had largely embraced new proof of vaccination requirements and was optimistic the town could turn a profitable summer tourist season that would "go on hopefully until after Easter".
Coveted city visitors to flock to 'safe' regions
Chair of Bendigo Tourism, Finn Vedelsby, said all Bendigo businesses would benefit from the state reopening.
"It's 90 per cent of our visitor economy," he said.
But Mr Vedelsby said he was worried some Melbourne visitors will not choose Bendigo this weekend and take their tourism dollars to other parts of regional Victoria, based on exposure sites.
"Despite the fact that we've got some cases here in Bendigo and some tier 1 exposure sites, we are a very safe destination to visit," he said.
"I think the optimism will certainly outweigh the scepticism."
Some feel unprepared for Melbourne influx
Mansfield's Delatitie Hotel and Produce Store Cafe owner Dean Belle said he was excited to welcome a predicted "tsunami" of visitors back from Melbourne.
But he felt hospitality operators had been left ill-prepared after the guidelines for regional hospitality were changed again.
"We are really, really nervous about our capacity to deliver the goods, as the saying goes," he said.
Many of his staff have not yet had their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and will not be fully vaccinated by Friday.
Mr Belle expects the larger volume of visitors will put added pressure on the venue to ensure everyone has been fully vaccinated.
"We are not only filtering, but we are also educating," he said.
Despite worrying about whether he will be able to cater to the crowds, Mr Belle said it was time to re-open and welcome his guests back.
"There needs to be predictability, there needs to be consistency, and for those businesses who have been closed the cash flow injection and just getting muscle memory back … before we get anywhere near Christmas."
