"As soon as it was announced, the phone calls started about 10 minutes later."
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Executive Cottages Albury received two cancellations from Victorian customers immediately after Monday's news the state border would be closed from 11.59pm. Tuesday, July 7.
Bowna's Great Aussie Holiday Park heard from visitors not longer allowed to travel there as the news was still breaking.
Other accommodation providers couldn't talk to The Border Mail because they were too busy taking phone calls.
While some Border businesses were still assessing the impact of the closure, others felt its effects at once.
Great Aussie Holiday Park manager Belinda van Dyck said they had several Victorian bookings in coming weeks and months.
"We had quite a few Victorian school camps booked in for term four and I imagine that now they're going to have to cancel again as well," she said.
"With schools, they tend to need to work that little bit further ahead, so if there's any chance that it looks like they might not be able to come, they're actually more likely to cancel it now."
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Mrs van Dyck said some bookings had been from schools that had called off camps earlier this year when the COVID-19 restrictions first came in.
Of yesterday's news, "it was a little bit like 'uh oh, here we go'".
"It was a little bit not unexpected but obviously we just have to do what we can with what we've got," she said.
Gayle Hobden, of Executive Cottages, said bookings had recently started to pick up after more than $40,000 of work had been cancelled when the pandemic started.
"There's people a lot worse off than I am, but it's very hard for the tourism industry, that's for sure," she said.
Business NSW Murray Riverina regional manager Andrew Cottrill said the closure would devastate the regional economy.
"People who live in these towns and cities along the Murray need to cross the border multiple times every day," he said.
"The issue is in Melbourne and Business NSW is calling for the two premiers to get together and sort this out by agreeing a travel bubble along the border or closing Melbourne off to the rest of the state as that is a lot more practical than building a Berlin Wall along the river."
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Albury Northside Chamber of Commerce general manager Carrick Gill-Vallance said questions remained about how the permit system would work and how individual businesses would be affected.
"Did it need to be a closure at the border or did it need to be travel restrictions around the areas that have induced all of this?" he said.
"There's a lot of businesses around here that rely on the flow of traffic.
"They've done it tough when the Australia-wide economy was shut down and now to have it happen again, it's a pretty disappointing thing, we've just got to work with it."
Business Wodonga chief executive Neil Aird said the border closure added to the disadvantages experienced through the various different restrictions in NSW and Victoria.
"People are worried that they'll be delayed for how long, who knows, so we hope there would be some sort of priority system for locals who are working in NSW to be able to get through very quickly, as we would expect with truck drivers and bus drivers," he said.
"The main bridges, I think that's reasonably straightforward but all the little crossings and smaller towns, it's going to be a big call on resources."
Mr Aird hoped people would follow the public health guidelines and keep the border closure in perspective.
"The pandemic is not over and we need to take precautions and because of the spike in Victoria, which is quite alarming, we need to bring in some further drastic measures and unfortunately being a border town, it really affects us greatly, as it has all along," he said.
Metricon manager regional housing Phil Barrett said his company was liaising with Service NSW as a permit system became established.
"We are working with the close to 100 members of our local teams that will need to register and apply for that permit, and then if approved follow the instructions to provide evidence of it when crossing the border," he said.
"We understand and are preparing for the fact that there may be a day or two time lag between closure and the exemption system being ready."