To what extent NSW Premier Gladys Berijiklian's warning or advice to NSW residents 'not to travel to Melbourne' (due to the latter's community transmission of COVID-19 cases) will have on travel demand is not yet clear.
On Wednesday 24 June, there are 44 flights (all airlines) shown as departing from SYD on the Sydney Airport website. Of these, 14 are Melbourne-bound.
VAd has four departures today from SYD, two of which (33 per cent) are down to MEL. 33 per cent is a high dependence on one destination (although QFd today has half its flights bound for MEL ex SYD).
Ex MEL, VAd has six total departures, two of which (33 per cent) are for SYD.
Apparently in some Melbourne suburbs that are in LGAs highlighted as 'problem areas', Woolies and Coles (and probably IGA/ALdi) are reporting a (to use a bad pun) run on toilet paper. This tells me that panic has set in, so if that's the case, fewer Melbourne residents will go on holidays if yet to book.
I don't perceive the situation as positive for any travel provider, with Ms Berijiklian having gone so far as to 'encourage' NSW tourism businesses not to accept Melburnians in hotels.
The attitude of the Federal Government remains that State borders should remain open, or where closed, should be opened up.
It's difficult as there's no vaccine, but conversely, how much damage does one do to economies given that so far Oz has only had just above 100 deaths when the usual flu season allegedly can see up to 3000?