The number of people who visit Melbourne’s CBD to work or to go shopping has fallen sharply in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. New figures show that the number of people who visit the CBD each day has fallen as low as 50,000 in recent months, compared with one million prior to the pandemic.
There are concerns that the decline will become permanent as more people choose to keep working from home when the health crisis abates.
Lord Mayor Sally Capp says the shift to telecommuting has had a flow-on impacts for businesses in the CBD, such as cafes, restaurants, bars, retailers and hotels:
