As restrictions ease in New South Wales (NSW) this week, it is a big step forward for the state’s hospitality and tourism operators and the path to reopening becomes clearer. I appreciate that, with Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory still in lockdown, and lots of barriers to free travel still to be overcome, we aren’t through this yet, but it feels like a great step.

There are more and more positive milestones being reached on the vaccination front, and we heard earlier this week from the Prime Minister that discussions are taking place with the NSW Government to try and bring forward the opening of international travel for NSW to 1 November 2021, and Qantas also announced it will start flying direct from Darwin to London five times a week from 14 November.

Tourism Australia’s monthly industry webinar took place last Friday and it included an update on the UK market, Tourism Australia’s activity in the business events space and our upcoming campaign – the Gift of Travel. A recording of the webinar is available here if you missed it.

Phillipa Harrison