After the Australian government announced that it would reopen the country's borders to international travelers later this month, Emily Barrett locked in a fare for a flight to Sydney. The nanny from Palo Alto, Calif., spent three days researching and talking to Australian friends before booking her trip to the island continent, which for two years had some of the world's strictest border controls and longest lockdowns.
People will go into the streets if we go back into a lock down now, she said. Her trip is scheduled to start a few days after the border opens.
Potential travelers and tourism operators alike are cautiously optimistic about the reopening of Fortress Australia, but many wonder if the isolated nation's ongoing Covid restrictions are still in place. Australia's reputation for rigidity and isolation during the Pandemic may be a hurdle to overcome.
There is no doubt that a full recovery will take time, but we are confident that the demand for Australia is strong, said Phillipa Harrison, the managing director of Tourism Australia.
Tourism contributed 45 billion Australian dollars, or $32 billion, to Australia's economy before the Pandemic.
Australia has the highest percentage of people over the age of 16 fully vaccineed for Covid-19. The country pursued a tough strategy that closed national and state borders, restricted Australians from returning home, and required its few visitors to undergo expensive hotel quark. Most of the country has been living with the Omicron variant of the coronaviruses since January, when a lot of cases were reported.
Catherine Bennett said that opening the borders represented a turning point because they felt that the virus was controlling them.
Australia's grand reopening has a few ground rules. Travelers entering the country must be fully vaccined to avoid a costly two-week hotel quark, and must test before arriving.
It will take a little more time for Australia's welcome mat to arrive. The entire state of Western Australia, a third of Australia's land mass, has been closed to international travelers and even Australian citizens for most of the Pandemic. Travelers will be able to return on March 3 with testing rules. One of the world's most remote major cities, Perth, is located in the state which has reported about 2,900 total cases and 10 deaths. The federal government can open the nation's borders, but the states have their own restrictions.
One of Western Australia's larger tour companies, Adam's Pinnacle Tours, desperately wants people to come back, according to a general manager. Some smaller operators the company worked with have closed after Covid struck.
Many operators who rely on foreign tourists are hopeful, but it is clear that there is no simple return to normal times.
China overtook New Zealand as Australia's largest foreign tourist market for the first time in 2017, and 1.3 million visitors from mainland China spent more than $12 billion Australian dollars.
With China still limiting outbound travel, that leaves a gaping hole in Australia's tourism economy.
The Apollo Surfcoast Chinese Restaurant is located along Victoria's Great Ocean Road, which is one of the state's major scenic attractions.
She lost nearly a hundred percent of her business when Australia closed. The restaurant burned down in April of last year. She reopened in December. Ms. Chen doesn't expect her core customers to come back for a long time.
She changed her menu to appeal to mainland Chinese visitors. Ms. Chen said that the menu is 80 percent Australian- Chinese.
She is looking forward to the return of international travel and more workers.
The Australian Open, one of the country's biggest sporting events, became a media circus in January when Novak Djokovic, the world's number one men, won.
Scott Morrison said that strong borders are fundamental to the Australian way of life.
Australia's fixation with border security is unpopular within the country but plays well with voters. How would Mr. Djokovic fit into Australia's new narrative?
Chris Allison, Tourism Australia's acting manager of the Americas, said it highlights the strength of Australia's border policies. The treatment of Mr. Djokovic was divisive, but it showed that Australia has no tolerance for vaccinations coming into the country.
If long-haul travelers are willing to bet on the reopening of Australia, then time will tell.
Some prefer to wait. Sky Tours is a travel agency in downtown Los Angeles and the manager said that Australia was where everyone wanted to go before the Pandemic. She said that Australia's protectiveness has made her clients cautious to travel there. Will they get stuck there again?
Looking ahead. The travel industry hopes this will be the year that travel comes roaring back after governments loosen coronaviruses. What to expect.
There is lodging. Travelers discovered the privacy offered by rental residences. They hope to compete by offering stylish extended-stay properties, sustainable options, rooftop bars and co-working spaces.
Rental cars. Travelers can expect higher prices and older cars with high mileage since companies still haven't been able to expand their fleets. Are you looking for an alternative? Car-sharing platforms might be more affordable.
Cruises. Demand for cruises remains high despite a bumpy start to the year. Because they sail on smaller ships and steer away from crowded destinations, luxury expedition voyages are particularly appealing right now.
There are destinations. Travelers are eager to visit a city like Paris or New York. Some resorts in the U.S. are experimenting with an almost all-inclusive model that takes the guess work out of planning a vacation.
Experiences. Sexy travel options include couples retreats and beachfront sessions with intimacy coaches. Trips with an educational bent are becoming more popular with families with children.
The data shows that interest in travel to Australia is already on the rise, as shown by the 200 percent increase in flight bookings after the border- opening announcement.
While the jump in bookings is encouraging, the booking volume compared to the same week in the previous year is not very high.
Christie Hudson is a senior public relations manager at the major online travel agency. For a lot of Americans, Australia is a bucket-list trip.
According to Tourism Australia, Australia's diverse Indigenous groups will be a focus of marketing to overseas travelers. In the Northern Territory, the region with the highest proportion of Indigenous people, many remote communities are barred from outsiders until at least March 3 in an effort to protect the residents from infections.
International visitors are more likely to engage in Aboriginal tourism activities in the Northern Territory than Australian tourists.
Victor Cooper, who owns and operates Ayal Aboriginal Tours in Kakadu National Park, used to welcome visitors from Europe and the United States to his country, where he taught them about bush tucker.
It took a long time for me to get a good thing in the overseas market. He doesn't think he's going to get the clients after the reopening announcement.
Some tourism operators are already seeing signs of recovery, which gives them hope for a better year.
Dave Gordon, an employee at Wake Up Bondi, said it was good to see people again.
Booking numbers for later in the year have risen since the news of the border reopening.
He said that the first year of the Pandemic was difficult. The hostel on the main thoroughfare of Bondi Beach slashed its rates and even closed for a period to survive.
He said that the border opening removes a major hurdle for him and other operators who want to convey a clear message for would-be tourists.
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