People unable to travel further afield because of COVID restrictions were heading out of Sydney and NSW regional areas to the Hunter Valley, and they were loading cases of Tyrrell's Wines into their cars.

"A lot of people have said, 'This is the money we were going to spend overseas, so we've come here to spend it'," Mr Tyrrell told the Newcastle Herald in January.

Seven months on, and the bumper summer has fermented into a parched winter for wine tourism. The pandemic that helped drive so many to the Hunter Valley wine country has now drained the visitors away.

With much of NSW, including the Cessnock Local Government Area, in lockdown, the carpark at Tyrrell's Wines is empty, and the cellar door has been closed since early August.

"I've never seen this, never sat here on a Saturday, and there's nobody here," Bruce Tyrrell told the Herald this week.

"It's a really weird feeling."

Even before this latest round of restrictions, the Sydney lockdown was biting at the cellar door. There were just four or five customers a day, compared with up to 40 carloads on a usual weekday, and on weekends "way above that".

The pain has flowed beyond the cellar door for Tyrrell's Wines.

During July, the company reached 65 per cent of its sales target.

While Bruce Tyrrell is confident export sales will help the August figures, the lockdowns continue to suppress local trade. About half of Tyrrells' business is tied in with "on-premise" sales, in venues such as hotels and clubs, and so that has been cut off at the moment.

While people are living with stay-at-home orders, "home delivery has not kicked in yet", according to Mr Tyrrell. Online orders are doing "okay, but they're not going at the rate they were mid last year".

From wine country to the waterfront, around Port Stephens, the visitors have gone.

Heavy traffic and "No Vacancy" signs were common in late 2020 and earlier this year. But not now, with the Port Stephens Local Government Area in lockdown.

"This latest lockdown has been dramatic," said Andrew Macdonald, Chair of the tourism industry organisation Destination Port Stephens.

As the owner of the Hotel Nelson and The Little Nel cafe, Mr Macdonald has seen first-hand the dramatic effect of the lockdowns.

From October to April, as people were looking for somewhere local to holiday, the hotel enjoyed a 99 per cent occupancy rate.

Even when the Sydney lockdown came into effect in late June, it was an opportunity for regional residents to visit Port Stephens, and by late July, Mr Macdonald's business had climbed back to about 25 per cent occupancy. Then came the latest wave of lockdowns.

"Now it's just shut off everyone," he said. "There's nobody to travel."

Mr Macdonald said the Hotel Nelson's occupancy rate had plunged to about one per cent this week, with "one or two people who have to come through for essential work".

The cash reserves built up during the healthy summer were now "being eaten away".

"So we're getting back to square one," he said.

The Destination Port Stephens Chair is aware he is hardly alone, saying that among the association's 210 member businesses, "there's a lot of stressed people". But, Andrew Macdonald said, he had not heard of any tourism business having to shut its doors permanently.

During this lockdown, a number of Port Stephens' biggest tourism drawcards are not operating, among them Imagine Cruises and Moonshadow-TQC Cruises.

Mel Turner, the business development manager for Moonshadow-TQC Cruises, said "'we have not fully recovered from the initial lockdown in 2020".

When the Sydney restrictions came into effect, Imagine Cruises' Frank Future said passenger numbers were already drying up and fewer boats were heading out for whale watching, "because we're very dependent on what happens in Sydney".

"More than 70 per cent of our passengers come from Sydney or the Central Coast," Mr Future said.

With those passengers having to stay at home, Mr Future can see the impact on his business' bottom line.

The figures for July were down 41 per cent compared with the same time two years ago, before most people knew what COVID was, let alone had any idea what it would do to their way of life.

"We have sufficient cash reserves to hunker down and see it out, but it's about looking after the staff," Mr Future said.

Imagine Cruises had 10 staff members, and to help those employees, Frank Future said, the company had been trying to access financial assistance from the NSW and federal governments.

Andrew Macdonald, who has about 40 staff, said he was still waiting for the governments' emergency payments for COVID-affected businesses.

"We're waiting anxiously," he said.

In the vineyards, Bruce Tyrrell said the lockdown, and the business downturn, had impacted on the wine company's 60 staff members, with their hours cut back to about two and a half to three days a week.

The COVID hit had also meant putting on hold about $500,000 in capital works around the winery.

"If you're running at 65 per cent of sales, if the money's not coming in, you can't do it," Mr Tyrrell said.

"If this goes on, we'd be a very different looking business; we'd just have to shrink."

Moonshadow-TQC Cruises' Mel Turner said the company hoped the NSW government extended its Dine & Discover program until the end of the year, to help entice back visitors.

"This has proven a lifeline to a lot of businesses in the Port Stephens region, and we would most certainly support that decision", she said.

"We are encouraging our staff to get vaccinated in support of the NSW Government push to increase vaccination rates to protect the community, and to get our local economy back up and running."

With almost 26 years in business, Imagine Cruises' Frank Future has explored options, such as virtual whale watching tours, but is waiting for the passengers to be able to return.

When they do return, he believes there will be more checks and rules, such as the possibility of people needing a vaccine passport.

"Like everybody, I'm just trying to predict what might happen," said Mr Future.

Until then, he is spending time in his garden - "I'm missing the whales" - and keeping himself buoyant with a sense of humour.

Having noted that sailing and fishing were allowed, Frank Future said "maybe I'll have to turn Imagine into a sailing-fishing boat".

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