Western Australia finally opens to international visitors

Nonstop flights from the UK are still avoiding WA

Arriving soon? Tourism in Australia fell in 2021 to just 3 per cent of the pre-pandemic leve. (Tourism Western Australia)

Twelve days after most of Australia opened to fully vaccinated international arrivals, the largest state has followed suit.

On 3 March Western Australia (WA) lifted its travel ban on overseas visitors after almost two years of isolation.

All travellers entering Australia are required to have had two Covid-19 jabs, plus must take a pre-departure test.

WA requires additional testing on arrival, telling travellers: “Undertake a rapid antigen test within 12 hours of arriving and register any positive result.”

Arrivals must also enroll in the state’s G2G Pass scheme. On arrival, they must scan the QR code on the arrival poster.

“The app asks you to take a photo to verify your identity and uses location services (at time of check-in only) to confirm your location,” the government says.

Access is not allowed to some remote communities of indigenous people.

Politicians in Perth have pursued an isolationist policy for many months – not merely keeping out overseas travellers, but also closing the state frontier to people from other states.

A reopening planned for other Australians in February was postponed because of fears of the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

The premier in the state capital, Perth, Mark McGowan, vowed to try to get the vast majority of the adult population boosted as well as vaccinated before opening up to other Australians and the outside world.

WA now has some of the highest Covid-19 rates in Australia.

In a Facebook post, Mr McGowan said: “WA became the island within an island. And it worked.

“By only allowing travel with jurisdictions that were free from Covid-19, we could remain Covid-free ourselves.

“We avoided long, debilitating lockdowns, and we achieved some of the best health and economic results in the world. We avoided needless deaths.”

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Perth had become a key gateway to Australia for travellers to the UK – thanks to the daily nonstop Qantas flight from London Heathrow.

But due to the continuing ban on international arrivals, the Australian airline switched the nonstops to the Northern Territory capital, Darwin – and doubled the frequency, with services from London via Darwin to both Sydney and Melbourne.

The nation’s tourism arrivals plunged in 2021 by 97 per cent compared with 2019, according to the latest Tourism Australia figures.