AUSTRALIA reopened international borders for the first time in nearly two years yesterday.

Australia closed its borders to tourists in March 2020 in a bid to reduce the local spread of COVID-19, but yesterday removed its final travel restrictions for fully vaccinated passengers.

Travelers were greeted at Sydney’s airport by jubilant well-wishers waving toy koalas and favorite Australian foods including Tim Tams chocolate cookies and jars of Vegemite spread.

Federal Tourism Minister Dan Tehan was on hand to welcome the first arrivals on a Qantas flight from Los Angeles, which landed at 6:20 a.m. local time.

“I think there’ll be a very strong rebound in our tourism market. Our wonderful experiences haven’t gone away,” Tehan said.

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said all travelers’ vaccination status would be checked before they arrived to avoid a repeat of Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic’s visa debacle.

Djokovic was issued with a visa through an automated process before he left Spain to compete in the Australian Open in January but was deported after he arrived in Melbourne because he was not vaccinated against COVID-19.

Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison said she expected tourist numbers would take two years to rebound to pre-pandemic levels.

“This is a really great start,” Harrison said. “This is what the industry had been asking us for, you know, just give us our international guests back and we will take it from there.”

Qantas yesterday was bringing in passengers from eight overseas destinations including Vancouver, Singapore, London and New Delhi.

The Sydney-based airline’s chief executive Alan Joyce said bookings have been strong since the federal government announced two weeks ago that the country was relaxing restrictions.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said 1.2 million people had visas to enter Australia with 56 international flights due to touch down in the first 24 hours of the border reopening.

(SD-Agencies)