Australia is set to reopen its border for foreign tourists from February almost two years. The nation has locked its border for tourists due to the coronavirus pandemic.
On Sunday, the Australian government is set to announce the news post-meeting of the national security committee.
Karen Andrews, Home Affairs Minister said in an interview, “We are getting ready to open as soon as we can. We don’t have all the information we need to be able to take the decision, but we are very close”.
Prior to lockdown, Australia’s tourism industry’s annual revenue generated was over $84.9 billion. However, the revenue in 2020-2021 was a steep fall of 41% in the first year of COVID-19. Australia’s hospitality sector was hard-hit due to the border restriction and lockdown induced due to COVID.
Re-opening of the borders was back-to-back delayed by the new variants coming up which also restricted the local travel within the nation. The highly contagious Delta variant also forced to suspend the trans-Tasman travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand. The variant made residents less confident regarding travel booking in advance which lead the nation to cancel major events.
