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Halls Gap motel co-owner Pip Spooner said the motel saw a sudden influx in requests late last week prior to the restrictions easing.
"At first, when the heads-up was given that the border might come down on the 8th of November, we expected Melburnians to start booking immediately. But they didn't," she said.
"It wasn't until a couple of days ago, when we got about six bookings in the space of 30 minutes, that things started to happen.
"I suspect Melbourne was holding back a little bit, because they wanted to make sure they were actually going to be allowed to leave.
"I think it was about the fifth or sixth 'donut day' in a row (zero new COVID cases, zero deaths in Victoria) that things really started rolling in."
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"Regional Victoria has been brilliant in visiting, spending money, supporting businesses. It's been wonderful," she said.
"But regional Victoria is only 20 per cent of the state's population.
"We're really excited to welcome people from Melbourne again - it's going to be wonderful."
Goldfields Motel Stawell's Rajinder Singh said he was yet to receive an increase in bookings, but was hopeful that would soon change.
"I think, hopefully, there will be a lot of people," he said.
"Someone last week called and said he wanted to have 11 people come and stay - hopefully we start getting more inquiries like that."
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"I think people are really desperate to get out," he said.
"They are really keen, and the weather here at the moment is really, really nice, so hopefully people can get out here and enjoy what we have."
Mrs Spooner said Halls Gap and surrounds was an attractive proposition right now.
"I think a term that can really apply to Halls Gap is 'rejuvenation tourism',"she said.
"There's fresh air here, lots of space, wildlife ... it's the ideal location to reboot after a difficult year."
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