COUNCILLORS are hesitant promoting the Bathurst region to Sydney, feeling now is not the time to encourage tourists from that area.
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While dealing with a report on the July school holidays at last week's council meeting, discussion turned to "the elephant in the room".
Councillor Monica Morse expressed her concern about visitors travelling to the region from Sydney, where COVID-19 is still active.
"Mudgee has done a very good marketing campaign with a result, I've been told, that Mudgee is so busy that you can't buy a cup of coffee in Mudgee and nobody's taking any notice of the social distancing and the hand sanitisers, etc, even just to get a cup of coffee," she said.
"We have recently had lots of expressions of concern of sporting groups coming to Bathurst and I'm just wondering if council is considering our reaction to visitors coming to Bathurst?
"I know we can't close the highway, I know all that, but is it a good idea to say 'Everybody come to Bathurst'? I'm not sure."
Cr Alex Christian seemingly agreed with her views, later saying that no non-essential travel "makes perfect sense".
During the July school holidays, the percentage of visitors to the Bathurst Visitor Information Centre (BVIC) from Sydney increased from 25 per cent to 59 per cent.
Some museums saw significant increases in visitation, around 71 per cent, and more than half of their visitors were from the Sydney metropolitan region.
Council is a partner of the 'Now's the time to love NSW' campaign, which, if successful, could bring more people to the region.
General manager, David Sherley, said council regularly discusses the evolving COVID-19 situation and is implementing the advice coming from the state and federal governments.
Groups holding events are directed to those guidelines.
Deputy mayor Ian North also spoke on the topic, and stressed that councillors also had a responsibility to make sure everyone in the community was doing the right thing.
"If I see someone not doing the sanitiser and all that, I'm encouraging them," he said.
"We've got to keep encouraging the community."
He said it was wonderful that the city is open and to have people coming to Bathurst, but all it would take is one person to bring the virus back to the city.
"We want to be a city that's alive and thriving in tough times; let's keep getting the message out there, we can't drop the ball on this, because look what happened in Victoria," Cr North said.
