Australians are tipped to favour destinations closer to home, particularly Southeast Asia.
South Korea just three weeks ago opened to fully vaccinated travellers, who will not be required to quarantine.
“Singapore Airlines has been the stand-out for resuming flights out of Australia. I’d now like to see Qantas put more planes in the air,” Tom Manwaring, chief executive of Express Travel Group told Travel Weekly Asia.
“Overall, it’s still the COVID testing requirements at airports that needs to be eliminated across the region. People don’t like them from both a cost and nuisance point of view.”
Mr Manwaring said he expects travel to Bali from Australia to soon reach pre-pandemic levels, with a recent Jetstar sale to Bali seeing record single-day bookings for the past five years.
Indonesian Tourism Minister Sandiaga Uno said the expectation is that Australians will come flocking.
“At least in the next few periods, we are targeting 1.4 million tourist visits from Australia, and this is to ensure that we are ready, hence we need to accelerate promotion efforts in the market,” he said.
Kylie Luttrell, director of Gold Coast based luxury travel agent The Travel Notebook told Travel Weekly Asia that her clients are now looking for longer stays in one destination.
“Pre-Covid, clients wanted to get as much out of a holiday as they possibly could, opting for stopovers, city visits, multi destinations etc., but that’s changed as people are opting for laidback, longer stays in one destination.
“People have felt suffocated by pandemic lockdowns and now they want to go where they can breathe the air, spend time with family and immerse themselves in culture.”
Previously, Australians would holiday in Singapore and spend a day or two on Sentosa, “now the opposite is happening. People are choosing to chill out on Sentosa and spend a day or two exploring Singapore city”.
Jetstar has also resumed flights to Vietnam, flying from Sydney and Melbourne.
As far as what’s open in Southeast Asia, Nepal, Vietnam and Indonesia all have quarantine-free travel for Australians, with Thailand soon to join. All countries require you to be fully vaccinated.
Japan has also increased their entry rules to capping at 10,000 visitors per day, offering more travel opportunities.
Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Malaysia and Pakistan are also open for tourism.
Other countries such as Laos have partially opened, with certain green zones and cities that are free to visit.
Explore more: smarttraveller.gov.au
