Australia finally opens its borders to travellers after TWO years

 International tourists and business travellers began arriving in Australia today, after two years of border closures.

The country closed its borders to tourists in March 2020 in a bid to reduce the local spread of COVID-19, but has now removed its final travel restrictions for fully vaccinated passengers.

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Tearful British tourist Sue Witton hugged her adult son Simon Witton when he greeted her at Melbourne’s airport.

Travellers were greeted at Sydney’s airport by jubilant well-wishers waving toy koalas and favourite Australian foods, including Tim Tam biscuits and jars of Vegemite spread.

Federal Tourism Minister Dan Tehan was on hand to welcome the first arrivals on a Qantas flight from Los Angeles which landed at 6:20 a.m. local time.

Danielle Vogl, who lives in Canberra, and her Florida-based partner Eric Lochner have been separated since October 2019 by the travel restrictions.

She said she burst into tears when she heard about the lifting of the restrictions, which will allow them to reunite in April, and telephoned him with the news.

Vogl told Australian Broadcasting Corp: “I actually woke him up to tell him, because I thought it was big enough news to do that.

“He couldnt believe it. He was like Are you sure, is this true? and Im like Yes, its happening. This is over now: we can be together again, she added.”

Lochner was not eligible for an exemption from the travel ban because the couple weren’t married or living together.

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said all travellers’ vaccination status would be checked before they arrived, to avoid a repeat of Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic’s visa debacle.

Djokovic was issued with a visa through an automated process before he left Spain to compete in the Australian Open in January, but was deported after he arrived in Melbourne because he was not vaccinated against COVID-19.

Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison said she expected tourist numbers would take two years to rebound to pre-pandemic levels.

She said: This is a really great start. This is what the industry had been asking us for, you know, just give us our international guests back and we will take it from there.”

Qantas is bringing in passengers from eight overseas destinations today, including Vancouver, Singapore, London and New Delhi.

The Sydney-based airlines chief executive Alan Joyce said bookings have been strong since the federal government announced two weeks ago that the country was relaxing restrictions.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said 1.2 million people had visas to enter Australia, with 56 international flights due to touch down in the first 24 hours of the border reopening.

Australia on Monday reported 17,736 new COVID-19 infections and 34 deaths- its death toll since the pandemic began is 4,929.

Australia imposed some of the world’s toughest travel restrictions on its citizens and permanent residents in March 2020, to prevent them from bringing COVID-19 home.

Travellers had to apply for an exemption from the travel ban, but tourism wasn’t an accepted reason.

International students and skilled migrants were prioritised when the border restrictions were relaxed in November, in response to an increasing vaccination rate among the Australian population.

Tourists from New Zealand, Japan and South Korea were also allowed in early.

Australian states and territories also have their own COVID-19 rules. The strictest are in Western Australia state, which covers a third of the island continent.

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