THE opening of South Australia’s regions to tourism and a push to reopen pubs in June has Gawler businesses hopeful a financial rebound is around the corner.

Premier Steven Marshall announced on Friday SA’s regions would open to outside visitors from Monday as part of a “step one” relaxing of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

A further “step two” relaxing of restrictions is planned to take place from June 8, although this date is reliant on coronavirus cases remaining supressed in the community.

As of yesterday morning, there is one active case of COVID-19 in South Australia, which according to SA Health data is located in the Adelaide City Council area.

Eagle Foundry Bed and Breakfast owners Gary and Leonie Iremonger saw their bookings up until September cancelled as events in Gawler and the Barossa were axed.

According to Mr Iremonger, his April business was down 50 per cent compared to the same month last year.

“It would be great to get people back into this area again to visit Gawler and the Barossa just to get out and about,” he said.

“International travel doesn’t exist at the moment, so people coming out to the regions will be great for us. It will be a great boost.”

The bed and breakfast also applied to, and was granted approval by, SA Health to be a registered place for people to complete a two week quarantine when returning from overseas or interstate.

Although regional tourism opened from Monday, Mr Iremonger expected businesses to pick back up later in the year, particularly if a plan to reopen pubs and restaurants in June was successful.

“It’s early days at the moment,” he said. People are still a little apprehensive about where they want to go and restrictions that may still be on.”

In addition to Mr Marshall opening regions to travel, he also outlined rules for unlicenced cafés and eateries to allow 10 people to sit and eat in outdoor dining areas.

Also on Friday, prior to Mr Marshall’s address, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a three-step plan for the nation to relax COVID-19 restrictions, which listed opening pubs and clubs in the final stage, with no direct timeline.

This caused the Australian Hotels Association of South Australia (AHA SA) to begin talks with the State Government to open licenced pubs and bars for up to 50 people to be seated at a time from June 8.

The Exchange Hotel publican Damian McGee said the idea provided some hope to the local hotel industry, which was lacking following Mr Marshall’s Friday press conference.

“It’s something we would need to do the maths to work out in finer detail whether it’s worth it or not,” he said.

“It’s been an experience which is really hard to describe, from absolute despair for the first couple of weeks in April to the hope we are feeling now.

“We still remain very hopeful the industry will come back much stronger, but the reality is that all consumer behaviour will change from now on.”

Mr McGee added alcohol would need to be served for the opening of pubs to be viable.

While some larger hotels may pass up on a 50-person limit, the possible opening requirement would be a boon for regional pubs.

AHA SA chief executive officer Ian Horne said country pubs – including Gawler establishments – could receive other incentives to open their doors from June 8 if an agreement between industry and the State Government can be reached.

“Thank you to the Premier for opening the door, who thinks there is better opportunities to address the needs of all – the small, medium and large,” he said.

“It wouldn’t be a significant advantage (to country pubs) but it would be taking away some of the barriers, such as being a bit more generous with numbers.

“I have to say however, there would be an absolute obligation on the venue to ensure they’ve got in place rigorous cleaning regimes, their staff trained in how to manage the COVID-19 virus in hospitality circumstances and they would police proper social distancing.”