With no international travel flagged until at least 2022, owner Ben Wardle knows the writing is on the wall.

He only took over the business 12 months ago.

"I can't see anything good coming out of no international travel for the next 12 to 18 months," he said.

"We were pretty unlucky with the government funding and grants because we weren't in operation (at the time the grants came out) so we had no proof of our income in the 12-month period before that."

Over the Christmas-New Year break when the hostel is usually a hive of activity, there was little more than a trickle of people staying on site.

In December and January, the business was 80 percent down on what their income would have been before the pandemic.

The future looks dire should that continue for the next 18 months.

"It could mean the end of Port Macquarie Backpackers," Mr Wardle said.

The uncertainty surrounding border closures is another key factor contributing to a lack of backpackers visiting Port Macquarie as they travelled up the east coast of Australia.

"Over the Christmas break people were definitely worried about getting stuck for sure," he said.

"We had bookings from people that were from Victoria and Queensland and when the Sydney cluster broke out they all rang up and cancelled because they didn't want to get stuck.

"Port Macquarie was never a hot spot, the areas they were coming from weren't hotspots, but if the border closed they didn't want to be stuck for three months.

"It's around 10 hours from Port Macquarie to Merimbula on the South Coast and it's another few hours to the border."

While the future for business owners such as Mr Wardle appears uncertain, Greater Port Macquarie Tourism Association president Janette Hyde believed the region would still benefit from no international travel.

"While we do have international travellers, they're usually only passing through and their big destination is Byron Bay or the Gold Coast," she said.

"So it's not like they're staying here for a week like our normal tourists do."

Mrs Hyde felt more local travellers would head to Port Macquarie as they embarked on a domestic holiday rather than one overseas.

"Tourists choose to go on a cruise or go to Europe, but now they have to find an alternative holiday and the alternative holiday is Australia and we want them to travel to our region," she said.

"We tend to go overseas because that's the shining light we are attracted to, but the more we travel around Australia the more we realise what we're not looking at."

Thank you for valuing local journalism with your subscription. While you're with us, you can also receive updates straight to your inbox from the Port Macquarie News. To make sure you're up to date with all the news, sign up here.