It is six months since Australia opened the borders to international travellers but tourist numbers are well down compared to 2018
ABS figures show that in June, 275,300 short-term overseas visitors arrived in Australia. In June 2019, there were 660,340.
The Department of Home Affairs said that 13,700 backpacker visas — known as Working Holiday Maker (WHM) visas — are currently pending.
There are also 70,060 backpackers with valid visas currently outside of Australia who could travel and work here if they wanted, but have chosen to stay away.
That’s nearly 84,000 spenders and potential workers who aren’t here, at a time when Australia needs both.
There are plenty of domestic travellers but they don’t spend anything like the money that overseas visitors do.
Cruise ships are slowly returning but the covid mishaps have restricted bookings.
There are also long delays issuing visas, a friend of mine arriving next month waited 3 months for her tourist visa. Qantas has also experienced staff shortages which has led to cancelled flights and delays.
The Brits don’t need to go abroad for the sun these days.
Anyway I don’t want any tourists ruining our unique natural environment.We are doing enough of that by ourselves.
If you rush you could be here to witness Sydney getting to 2 metres of rain this year with only 2mm to go.
Since European settlement there have only been six times when Sydney’s annual rainfall exceeded 2m and with four months of the year left this could be an all time record - only 200mm to go!
Even worse it looks like the 3rd consecutive La Nina is forming (drought in the Americas, wet in Australia) AND the Indian Ocean Dipole is also negative (drought in Africa, wet in Australia). Basically the continent is surrounded by hot water!
Bruce
Australia will not be getting many UK visitors for some considerable time. Money has become very tight with the cost of living over here rising so fast that people just don’t have the spare cash for expensive holidays. That is the short answer
Have you looked at the cost for a holiday in Australia? it is from £3000+ per person
Yep, we definitely don’t want poor people visiting, unless you are from the Pacific Islands and want to work on a farm for six months.
I am not sure about the $6000 I presume that is a long stay and includes air fares (which are very high at the moment), if I was visiting I would just arrive and either hire a car and stay at motels or hire a mobile home. Though I believe that you need to provide an itinerary when you apply for an electronic visa now - I just wrote a letter with a list of places to visit for my friend - there is no check on what you actually do once you have the visa.
I’m in the process of getting my Indian Visa, i hope there atre no delays as i fly o0ut to Goa on the 13th october, for my annual six month visit… the return flight cost just over £600 thats for a direct flight London to Goa, wish me luck…
You get 15 minutes free drop off or pick up at Sydney Airport.
They were embarrassed into it by protests and people using the drop off zone outside the terminal building to pick up passengers causing over crowding. The airport security people tried to stop it but as they actually have no powers they were ignored so the airport was forced to provide an area for people to both drop off and pick up passengers they called it “Express Pick Up”.
I wait in nearby Rochdale and my visitors phone me when they are in the express pickup so I drive in pick them up and drive out easily within the 15 minutes
It has to be said I thought Manchester Airport was the worse one I had been in when I arrived there years ago but to be fair they were undergoing big renovations at the time.
Airports aren’t usually the nicest of places to hang out, largely because they’re glorified waiting rooms. Doesn’t help that the prices of drinks and (usually stale, lukewarm and flaccid) foodstuffs are grotesquely overpriced as soon as you get past security.
Hi Guys i fly out on thursday, and boy am i ready, the visa has become a nightmare and costs 150 quid, but whatever the cost it will be worth it to get away from all this bad news, plus i had to have another vaccination…lol… i arrive 3.30a.m. and my first job is a decent haircut, my last one six weeks ago cost me ten quid… by giving a generous tip in Goa it will cost me one pound, and i will be greeted with a mile wide smile, not here they bloody grunt ‘next’, i will try and keep in touch from over there, stay warm, and stay safe…
Just a wee update, i’m due to arrive ‘home’ on the 12th of April, i have a fleece ready… as is normal its glorious here 34c forecast, quite a lot of our regulars are missing, [not dead, just not here] mostly because of visa problems, it seems to affect us oldies more due to a lot of us residing in confused,com… i had a lot of help getting sorted, so many wanted to help me leave [lol] i am quite happy, i can live here on about 600 rupees a day which is about six quid, ok its costs others a lot more, but i just rent a room, with my own wet room and balcony, the room i’m in this year also has a kitchen…there are not many Russians either which is not surprising… there is mostly couples of English, most of whom have been coming here since the last century [lol, i enjoyed saying that] but because of visa problems others sare trying other destinations…SriLanka, and even Mexico or Vietnam… but fully expect them to return to southern Goa next time… its certainly worth considering… an old friend of mine came on a package holiday to try it, he phoned me saying he was ill… so i asked what he might do if he was ill in England… i’d go see a doctor… so i told him to go see a doctor, and i would foot the bill… he rang back two hours later saying i owed him one pound and that included the Medicine… ok that was about fifteen years ago and costs have gone up, but the last time i visited the hospital it cost me three quid… so i hope you are all ok and keeping warm…Crabby
