While residents of the "border bubble" are allowed to use the Murray River, the remainder of regional Victoria is still forbidden due to the NSW border restrictions.
Murray River Paddlesteamers director Rohan Burgess said his company was continuing to suffer due to the continued restrictions.
“We opened over the weekend to bubble residents and it was a disaster,” he said.
“We knew the market was not there, but we now have the figures to show that. We received numerous phone calls across the weekend, all from areas of regional Victoria, and we had to tell them all ‘no'.
“People want to spend time on the river but they remain unable to. The numbers in regional Victoria are already incredibly low, and the rest of the state is catching.
“We just want the opportunity to open our business to all of regional Victoria.”
While the NSW Government is yet to budge, attention continues to grow on the issue.
“We've done a number of Facebook posts in the last few days about our position, and they've been some of our most popular,” Mr Burgess said.
“There is so much interest, and so much of it is coming from people outside the bubble who really want to use the paddlesteamers. It's very frustrating.
“We've written to the NSW Government again today, and we've tweeted as well. Hopefully that will get a bit more attention what we are looking for.
“We've been able to provide the data we got on the weekend to the multiple tourism and business groups who are campaigning for the border to open, so hopefully that helps drive some progress.”
Luxury on the Murray Houseboats owner David Grubb said the interest in business was there.
“People are in the same situation,” he said.
“We've got a lot of calls from around the regional areas of people who want to book but can't at the moment. This is why we desperately need the border to be open.
“We want to be able to take these bookings and provide our clients with some certainty that they will be able to take a trip and have the holiday they want.”
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