Surge in passport purposes as tourism business requires roadmap to reopen borders

It seems Australians are back in the mood for travel as passport applications have doubled in the last month, but tourism companies are still desperate for a plan to reopen the country.

Important points:

• Applications for new or renewed passports doubled in April compared to the previous year
• Tourism groups want a transparent, staged roadmap for the reopening of international borders
• This week’s federal budget indicated that the borders wouldn’t be open until mid-2022

In April there were more than 70,000 applications for new passports or renewals, compared to 29,000 in the same period last year.

While the Trans-Tasman bubble opened on April 19, this week’s federal budget for international travel might not resume until mid-2022.

There are still significantly fewer passport applications than before the pandemic, with 165,000 applications in April 2019 and 176,000 in the same period in 2018.

There were more than 238,000 passport applications or renewals in the first four months of 2021, compared to 525,000 in 2020, 740,000 in 2019 and 737,000 in 2018.

Daniel Gschwind, chairman of the board of directors of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council, said the growth in passport applications over the past month signals an expectation that “we will come out of it at some point”.

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Pressure mounts for gradual reopening

It comes amid renewed calls for a roadmap for resuming international travel in the United States According to the federal budget.

Barry Abrams of the Board of Airline Representatives of Australia told ABC Radio Brisbane that the assumption that the international borders would reopen in mid-2022 was “unfortunately very disappointing” but not unexpected.

Mr Abrams said the adoption “for budgeting purposes” appeared to have been made, arguing that there was “currently no plan to understand how we get this going”.

He called for a plan that would allow the borders to be gradually reopened, with a roadmap setting out which health requirements, both in Australia and overseas, were needed to “relax or remove border restrictions”.

“Talking to some members, we are at the lowest point,” he said.

“We didn’t think it could get any worse, but we feel like the hole has got a little bigger for us.”

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Remaining isolated could transform the Australian lifestyle

Mr. Gschwind said the industry appreciates “the excellent health results” that have been achieved in Australia and the fact that community transmission has been so low “that we can get our economy going and domestic tourism to work quite well” .

“We also know that Australia will need to get in touch with the rest of the world again at some point in the future,” he said.

“We cannot remain an economic or social island forever if we do not want to drastically change our lifestyle.

“We would expect the federal government to determine how this path and this roadmap should work.

“What are the triggers? What measures have to be taken or what milestones have to be reached in order to be able to take one step at a time in order to be able to open borders?”

Overseas tourism industry spending in Australia was $ 45 billion in 2019 but fell to $ 11 billion during the pandemic last year.

This week, the budget prompted Qantas to postpone the scheduled resumption of international flights from late October to late December, with the exception of trans-Tasman flights.

“We remain optimistic that additional bubbles will open once the vaccine rollout in Australia is completed for countries that are in a similar position by then, but it is difficult to predict which ones are currently,” a statement said in a statement on Wednesday.

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International trips open up

Sarah Clark, managing director of Intrepid Group in the Asia-Pacific region, said the tour operator’s offerings have dropped from 150 to 50 countries since the pandemic.

But she said international travel was reopening with trips to the UK, US and across Europe, and tours overseas sold out quickly.

“It is quite disappointing to hear our government say the borders could be closed in another 12 months.

“It seems that Australia is still really lagging behind in the border and vaccine race and, ultimately, it will affect our ability to recover economically.”

Ms. Clark called for clarification on a plan to safely reopen the borders for the industry to begin planning.

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Hotel quarantine key against COVID

A statement from the Federal Department of Health said mandatory hotel quarantine had been a key pillar of the COVID-19 response that has brought Australia to safety.

“The government has not yet made a decision on whether a person’s vaccination status will facilitate entry into Australia,” the statement said.

“Currently, travelers to Australia have to carry out a mandatory 14-day quarantine in their first port of arrival, regardless of their vaccination status.”