International travel to Surf Coast resumes

INTERNATIONAL tourists are set to return to the region when Australia re-opens its borders to the world on February 21, ending about two years of COVID-19 induced travel bans.

As the most visited region outside of Melbourne “the Surf Coast is very conscious of international travel”, general manager of Great Ocean Road Tourism Liz Price said.

“Having a date will provide industry with optimism and allow operators to reactivate international markets that have been dormant, some of them – like China – since 2019.”

Pre pandemic visitation rates for the Great Ocean Road were around 1.2 million people a year, 800,000 to 900,000 of those were day trippers and 270,000 would stay overnight.

“Those people haven’t been stopping for food, coffee, staying in accommodation. So international travel is really important in terms of evening out visibility because domestic travel largely revolves around school holidays,” Ms Price said.

Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine was similarly buoyed by news of the borders reopening.

“A sign of positivity for tourism operators,” said its executive director Brett Ince, pointing to multiple positive knock-on effects.

“We can welcome international carriers back to Avalon such as Air Asia … Geelong and the Bellarine especially has a significant amount of expats overseas, being able to reconnect with friends and family in our region is welcomed by our community.”

It’s also a “green light for international events” according to Mr Ince, noting that events such as the Avalon International Airshow, Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and Rip Curl Pro will benefit from having overseas competitors and acts back in the mix.

While news of borders re-opening has been overwhelmingly greeted with enthusiasm by the tourism and travel sector, leaders warn it will take years to rebuild to pre-COVID levels.

“Becoming international in the first place was very hard, to do it all over again will take some time,” said Avalon CEO Justin Giddings, describing it as a medium to longer term project.

Before COVID international flights to Bali and Kuala Lumpur were in place and other flights to Vietnam were in the process of being established.

“But I’m very confident we’ll see international services operating this year … I’m continuing to work with airlines, have had two already contact me today. But that will be up to my successor and team to take that forward, but they’ll need help,” said Mr Giddings, who recently announced he would be stepping down from the role of Avalon CEO.

Ms Price agrees with the years-long timeframe of re-establishing one of the region’s primary economies, but she does see opportunities in the process.

“We’ll start activating now, but it will take time to rebuild these markets, really it could take until 2024 to start seeing pre-pandemic numbers,” she said.

“We still have an opportunity as we rebuild to build back differently, and target markets that are going to stay longer and explore more of the region.”