Australia and Singapore have confirmed that travel between the countries will start on 21 November.
Prime
Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, met with his Australian
counterpart Scott Morrison on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Rome to
announce the details.
The agreement is likely to provide a major boost for tourism operators in both countries.
“This quarantine free travel lane with Singapore is the first step in
getting our export tourism businesses back to doing what they do best,
providing amazing experiences for international visitors,” said
Australian Tourism Export Council managing director, Peter Shelley.
“In
2019, Australia greeted close to half a million visitors from
Singapore, spending well over $1billion and we remain a strongly
desirable destination and with proximity and motivation on our side, we
hope this market will offer strong opportunities.”
The new travel arrangements will launch with NSW and Victoria as both
states have abolished quarantine requirements for eligible overseas
travellers, so long as travellers present a negative PCR test taken
within 72 hours of departure. Singapore previously announced it would
welcome fully-vaccinated Australians from 8 November.
Western Australia is still in lockdown for overseas visitors but the
state government restriction on international arrivals faces a legal
challenge from travel retailer Flight Centre.
Flight Centre boss Graham Turner is working with a Melbourne law firm
and will proceed with a challenge to the state’s border policy if the
government doesn’t come up with a roadmap out of lockdown.
Separately, both Singapore Airlines and Qantas have been busy ramping
up international flights to and from Australia this week, while Scoot
has just launched promotional fares for its flights starting 21
November.
A
Singapore A350 became the first international flight to depart from
Australia, without requiring passengers to seek an exemption to leave
the country.