International tourists will be back in Australia by March with the government to announce a date for opening the international border as early as Monday.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said allowing the return of vaccinated holidaymakers and business visitors was a ‘priority’ and the federal government was ‘very close’ to announcing the re-opening.
‘We are going through the process of preparing to open, and we will continue to talk to the health professionals, so as soon as they say yes, we will work with the states and territories and we will re-open our international borders to tourists,’ she said.
A meeting of cabinet’s National Security Committee on Monday will discuss the re-opening with a senior government source reportedly confirming this would likely be within the next three weeks.
Vaccinated Australian citizens have been able to travel through the country’s international border since November 1, while skilled migrants and foreign students were welcomed back in mid-December.
But with case numbers in Australia and abroad falling, focus is now shifting to non-essential travel such as holidays.
Covid cases and hospitalisations have been on a downward trend in recent weeks in almost all states except Western Australia.
More than 90 per cent of the country is vaccinated and 8.8 million booster doses have been administered.
‘It’s encouraging to see how our health system is responding to Omicron,’ Ms Andrews said.
‘We know parts of our economy continue to be under pressure, including our important tourism sector. Like tourism operators across the country, we want to see visitors return as soon as it’s safe to do so.’
On Sunday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison also confirmed the return of international visitors would be addressed ‘very early on’ this week.
‘We have already opened up our borders to skilled migrants and backpackers and to international students, that has been happening now for some months.’ Mr Morrison said.
‘We are considering further opening of the borders to international visitors as many of our states now move through and past their peaks.’
‘The key issue that we have been examining… is how that decision could impact on our hospitals.’ Mr Morrison added.
‘The previous opening up of the borders has gone very well. We are looking forward to… welcome visitors back to Australia again as soon as we safely and possibly can.’
Australia’s international border was slammed shut to non-Australians in March 2020 and – after 23 months – struggling tourism operators are keen to see a return of foreign cash.
While domestic travel enjoyed brief boom periods in the last two years, intermittent lockdowns, state border restrictions and most recently the Omicron wave have weighed down on the industry.
The first tourists will arrive by plane with the return of cruise ships likely to be much later as agreements with state governments that control ports need to be reached.
The government also recently relaxed testing requirements for those flying into Australia with negative rapid antigen tests within the previous 24 hours now accepted along with PCR tests within the previous three days.
Ms Andrews said she could not guarantee the international border would not close again but the government would make every effort to ensure it stayed open.
‘I was very keen to reopen our borders to the economic cohorts and also to international students on December 1, but then we were hit with Omicron and that was delayed by two weeks,’ she said.
‘We are prepared to deal with what comes our way, and hopefully once the borders are open, they remain open.’
