If, like us, your wanderlust-filled heart was crushed when the recent Federal budget revealed international travel was off the cards until mid next year, then you’ll want to hear this.
While our trans tasman travel bubble has been in full swing since April, there’s a new potential bubble on the cards and it could see you sipping a cocktail from a coconut on a white sand beach sooner than you think.
Just this week, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison headed to New Zealand to meet with NZ PM and all-around queen Jacinda Ardern to discuss, among many things—extending the travel bubble between the nations to include more countries.
While NZ currently has quarantine-free travel with the Cook Islands (read about that here), Morrison and Ardern are currently in talks to open our bubble to a variety of pacific nations like Vanuatu and Tonga.
“We are supporting our Pacific family and the idea of a bubble that goes beyond New Zealand and Australia is a real possibility,” Morrison told reporters just this week.
It’s an idea supported by Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce who recently spoke at News Corp’s Future of Travel Forum. He said that while vaccines were “the key to resuming international travel by the end of the year”, he remains hopeful we could once again be travelling overseas by December. We like the sound of that.
Speaking at the same event Trade and Tourism Minister Dan Tehan confirmed that Australian and New Zealand governments were in talks to further expand quarantine-free travel to include a number of Pacific destinations, but it would still come down to vaccinating the majority of the population to allow more borders to open.
While a Singapore bubble was also on the cards, recent cases seem to have shelved plans for now.
We’ll keep updating this page with new information when it drops.
Until then, make your way through this list of 50 amazing Australian destinations you need to check out.
Image Credit: Monika MG