Looking to the future, one of the most pressing concerns for businesses and business groups is a lack of certainty.

Grampians Tourism chief executive Marc Sleeman has no doubts of the region's ability to bounce back in the long term.

"Past reopenings show us that our destination is extremely appealing to Victorians, we're in a good position to continue to recover from these impacts," he said.

"But it's the uncertainty that's causing concern at the moment."

According to the Victorian Tourism Industry Council, up to the period ending April 2021, Victoria's visitor economy shrunk by $21.5 billion, wiping two-thirds of visitor spend from the state's performance.

VTIC chief executive, Felicia Mariani, said that operators across the industry have no financial or emotional reserves left to continue this battle and need to be urgently supported.

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"It's clear that we won't have a road to recovery without significant sustained support that lasts until widespread vaccinations can be achieved across the country at year end," Ms Mariani said.

"Every Government talks about 'go hard and go fast' in shutting down this virus; we need to see the same commitment to super charging our rate of vaccinations and supporting the industry's survival and recovery."

Marianne Braam, owner of Stawell's Grampians Gate Caravan Park, said while COVID-19 certainly had an impact, it was important to put things into perspective.

"It's not World War II or the black plague. It could be a lot worse, we're still pretty lucky... it's not all doom and gloom. It could be a lot better and it would be nicer if COVID had never hit," Ms Braam said.

"We've kept on an even keel, not too far backwards thanks to government concessions. We've got a few workers in for the gold mine, a few tourists who've been trapped here and are locked down with us. That stops us from going backwards."

Government funding can sustain businesses such as Ms Braam's for the moment, but with no end in sight for the lockdowns, the impact of the uncertainty cannot be overstated Mr Sleeman said.

"These additional lockdowns and further uncertainties just add a whole lot of additional pressure to everyone's mental health," he said.

"We're coming to terms with the ability to open up and close and lock down, but the reality is that while we may be in a two week lockdown, the impacts are far-reaching. It goes on for weeks and weeks to get back to earlier operating levels.

"We know the economic impacts have been significant, the toll on our mental health something I don't think we fully understand yet."

The impact of the lockdowns are also never uniform.

"Every business is a bit different, and it will affect some businesses a lot more than others," Ms Braam said.

"Try getting a tradie in a hurry I think they are still very busy. We feel for the local retailers at least we have some customers.

"Although its quiet now we look forward to next week and back to normal trading, the tourists will be back and we will encourage them to spend their dollars up the main street."

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This unpredictability across the board carries deep into the community, according to Mr Sleeman.

"Families and children are impacted; they're impacted by what's happening to their parents. It's all our community. It's an issue we're trying to solve, but no-one's got the answers," he said.

However, the impact of uncertainty goes beyond the toll on the immediate community as well.

"We're looking to attract investors into the region (but) we've got shortages. We've got labor shortages, we've got housing shortages, we've got accommodation shortages across the visitor economy," Mr Sleeman said.

"In these uncertain times, it's very difficult to attract private investment."

Ms Mariani stressed that much of Victoria's tourism economy was based regionally.

"In Victoria, our industry supported over 250,000 jobs directly and indirectly, with 110,000 of those jobs in regional Victoria," she said.

Mr Sleeman said the opening of the Grampians Peaks Trail and the proposed resort at Laharum will be the "shining lights" for the region.

"(They) will help position the Grampians as an icon nature destination within Australia," he said.

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