(TAN): Australia is telling its people they would have to wait until the end of this year or beyond before they can resume international travel, keeping with the coronavirus overseas travel ban, reports said.
The country’s Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham, while speaking about the issue, reportedly encouraged citizens to start ‘dreaming’ about their next domestic vacation to push Australia’s struggling travel sector after the crisis is over.
“Look, it’s impossible to tell at present precisely when travel restrictions will be removed, because that will be a matter dependent upon the health advice at the time. This is a time where, unfortunately, people can’t undertake holidays and they won’t be able to overseas for quite some time to come,” he was quoted by myGC as saying.
“There may be a slightly earlier point in time where it becomes feasible to think about domestic travel again. We’re not there yet but certainly this time is a good time for a bit of dreaming, planning, thinking about the Aussie break that you might take when we finally get to the other side of this,” Birmingham was quoted by Happy Mag as saying.
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According to reports, he hinted that the country’s borders will remain shut until sometime into the next year, adding anybody who has an international trip booked for later this year might want to review the plans.
“There may come a time where at least we can relax some of those travel restrictions within Australia and that will give you a chance to be able to get out, if you’re in a position where you can afford to do so – perhaps to support some of those regions who at the start of the year were dealing with bushfires, or indeed the many other tourism regions who are struggling at present because of the loss of business,” myGC quoted Birmingham as saying.
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