CANBERRA: Australia welcomed its first overseas tourists in nearly two years on Monday, after reopening its border, which had been closed since early 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to reports, Australia's international border has reopened to passengers who are completely vaccinated against Covid-19, signalling the end of restrictions put in place to limit the virus's spread in March 2020. In the first 24 hours after the airport reopened, 56 flights were scheduled to arrive in Australia.
On Monday morning, Dan Tehan, Australia's federal minister for commerce, tourism, and investment, was at the Sydney international airport to greet the first passengers, calling it a watershed moment for the country.
"Even though they had been on a plane for what, 20-odd hours," he told Nine Network television, "the first passengers had a tremendous smile on their face." "The Australian people's warm greeting to our guests from other countries hasn't faded." According to Tehan, the return of double-vaccinated overseas visitors will re-energize Australia's tourism sector, which employs 660,000 people and generated USD 43 billion in revenue in 2018-19. The tourism business could take up to 18 months to recover from the epidemic, according to David Marshall, chair of the Canberra Region Tourism Leaders Forum.
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