Australia Unlikely to Open Borders Until 2021

Simon Birmingham, Australia's Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, has said that it is unlikely that Australia will reopen its borders to international travellers this year.

Speaking at an event at the National Press Club of Australia in Canberra on  Wednesday, Mr. Birmingham said, "International students and other categories of visitors to Australia who stay here for a longer period of time, can more easily be accommodated because we can simply work through the 14-day quarantine periods that have worked so well in terms of returning Australians to this country safely today."

#Australia unlikely to reopen border to international travellers until 2021, but will look to relax entry rules for students and other long-term visitors, said Trade Minister @Birmo on Wednesday (about 35-min mark in Q&A). #coronavirus #Travel #Tourism
https://t.co/xCuqXXTxrA

— Travel News Asia (@TravelNewsAsia) June 17, 2020

He went on to say, "In terms of other countries and how we look at shorter term visitation, that becomes much more challenging once you move beyond New Zealand, but not impossible and I hope that we can look eventually at some of those countries who have similar successes in suppressing the spread of COVID to Australia and New Zealand, and in working through that with those countries to find safe pathways to deal with essential business travel that helps to contribute to jobs across our economies. But I do sadly think that in terms of open tourist related travel in or out of Australia that remains quite some distance off, just because of the practicalities of the volumes that are involved and the need first and foremost for us to put health first."

When the moderator states "that sounds more like next year, not this year", Mr. Birmingham replies, "I think that is more likely the case."

Currently all Qantas scheduled international flights, except for flights between Australia and New Zealand, have been suspended until at least the end of October 2020. The airline had been hoping to resume international flights at the end of July.

According to Tourism Australia, there were 2,300 visitor arrivals in April 2020, a drop of 99.7% when compared to the same month last year when 700,400 people visited the country. In 2019, Australia welcomed a total of 9,465,700 visitor arrivals, a 2.4% increase on 2018.

See latest Travel News, Video Interviews, Podcasts and other news regarding: COVID19, Australia.