Australia said yesterday that is reopening its borders to vaccinated travelers this month, ending two years of misery for the tourism sector, reviving migration and injecting billions of dollars into the world’s 13th-largest economy.
The move effectively ends the last main component of Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic given relatively low death and infection rates. The other core strategy, stop-start lockdowns, was shelved for good in December last year.
The country had taken steps to relax border controls, such as allowing in skilled migrants and quarantine-free travel arrangements with select countries like New Zealand.
Photo: Reuters
However, the reopening, which takes effect on Feb. 21, represents the first time since March 2020 that people can travel to Australia from anywhere in the world as long as they are vaccinated.
“If you’re double-vaccinated, we look forward to welcoming you back to Australia,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at a media briefing in Canberra.
The tourism industry, which has relied on the domestic market that has itself been heavily impacted by movement restrictions, welcomed the decision, which comes three months before Morrison is due to face an election.
“Over the two years since the borders have been closed, the industry has been on its knees,” Australian Tourism Export Council managing director Peter Shelley said. “Now we can turn our collective efforts towards rebuilding an industry that is in disrepair.”
Tourism and Transport Forum CEO Margy Osmond said the industry was “thrilled” by the reopening, but would need coordination to ensure Australia was competitive as a destination.
“It’s not as simple as just turning on the tap and we see numbers of international tourists back where they were pre-COVID,” she said.
International and domestic tourism losses since the start of the pandemic totaled A$101.7 billion (US$72.16 billion), Tourism Research Australia said, adding that International travel spending in Australia plunged from A$44.6 billion in the 2018-19 financial year to A$1.3 billion the following year.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said in a statement that the company was looking at flight schedules to determine ways to restart flights from more international locations soon.
As elsewhere in the world, Australian COVID-19 cases have soared in recent weeks due to the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, which medical experts say is more transmissible without being as virulent as previous strains.
With more than 90 percent of eligible Australians fully vaccinated, new cases and hospitalizations seem to have slowed, authorities said.
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