The 2019 Dubbo Open starts tomorrow, and there is a reasonably large contingent of players from Canberra attending. Taking into account meal breaks and other contingencies, the travel time between the two cities is around 5 hours by car. Based on nothing more than experience, 5 hours travel seems to be at the upper end of how long players are willing to spend traveling to an event.
This not only applies to travel by car, but also via other means. For example, there are a massive number of Indian players taking part in the 2019 Dubai Open, which involves flight time of around 3 to 4 hours. On the other hand, when trying to attract Indian players to events in Australia, the long travel time was often given as a reason for the lack of interest.
Of course some events are too good to pass up (Zonals, Olympiads etc), but for the casual player too much travel time is one obstacle that is hard to overcome.
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I think this is an accurate assessment based on my past experience as well. Players were generally prepared to travel if they were keen from Brisbane/Gold Coast to Bundaberg, which is 5 to 6 hours by car depending on traffic, but a tournament held anything further past that was seen as too far, or had to be flown, which means can not stick four people in a car.
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