Greg Parker, who owns and operates the Ballarat Wildlife Park, says there are some real concerns as to how much longer many tourist operators can stay viable without any customers.

While access to JobKeeper has kept the majority of the wildlife park's staff with employment, three have been let go, while new staff have been unable to start.

And with the upkeep costing almost $50,000 a month just to look after the animals, Mr Parker said he holds real concerns for the future if lockdowns are not eased soon.

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"We're really still in the dark, who knows? It could be as late as November 23," Mr Parker said.

"We were all really excited about the possibility of reopening on the 13^th. Can we go an extra couple of weeks if it's good for the community? perhaps, but if it's November 23, that's a scary proposition.

"We've got a lot of outgoings all the time with animals. Every day counts now. We've been hanging by our fingernails

"What it means to us, we're going to have a huge reduction in our cash reserves, going forward. We're already facing at least restricted business for the next two or so years with the lack of international tourism."

Mr Parker has called on the state government to separate the regions from the city as Victoria heads out of lockdown.

"I just think we could be micro-managing this better rather than taking a broad spectrum approach to this. The economy just can't afford it," he said.

"We should be looking at regions. There are two cases in Ballarat, surely that mean we should be able to open to restricted people, be they locals, wearing face masks, have social distancing and hand hygiene. At this point anything will help.

"If we were able to open by the start of the school holidays, say around September 23, that would be fantastic for us."

Sovereign Hill chief executive officer Sara Quon said at this stage the outdoor museum's attention was focused on looking after its staff and volunteers.

"We are supportive of the Victorian government's effort to contain the coronavirus crisis and are continuing to work through the Premier's roadmap and make the necessary preparations required to ensure we are in the best position to deliver an excellent visitor experience when we are able to open," Ms Quon said.

"Our effort and energy is on ensuring our people, their families and friends are safe, and that our site is managed and maintained through this period.

"Like all businesses we don't want to be closed, but we know the best case scenario for us and the local community is to ensure that when we are able to open, we are able to stay open."

Chair of Ballarat Regional Tourism Iain Gunn said the extended timing on reactivation was a worry for Ballarat businesses.

For some, the prospect of business surviving until late October or November, which looks to be when tourism businesses can hopefully expect to reactivate, will simply not be possible," Mr Gunn said.

We are disappointed the roadmap has all of regional Victoria into one group and while regional Victoria is expected to have a shorter timeline to reopen, the fact remains that our regional tourism businesses rely heavily on people from Melbourne for their visitation.

"We remain disappointed that Ballarat Tourism and Hospitality businesses will be denied the opportunity to reopen for local patronage, despite the lowering case numbers in our region.

"Given the uncertainty, we are expecting job losses and business closures unless significant business support is announced.

"The pressure is on the state government to come up with specific business recovery programs for the tourism and hospitality industry."

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