Prime Minister Scott Morrison has made good on his promise that Australia will see inbound tourists before the year’s end, revealing quarantine-free entry for Singaporeans within this month.
From November 21, the new travel arrangements will kick off starting with NSW and Victoria as both states axed quarantine requirements for eligible overseas travellers on Monday, so long as travellers present a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of departure.
Morrison announced the agreement at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Rome, following a meeting with the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong.
“Australia is slinging its doors open to fully vaccinated Singaporean travellers in November,” Morrison said.
“It follows the announcement this week that fully vaccinated travellers from New Zealand will be welcomed back in October.
“This means within weeks Australia will be welcoming tourists from two of our top ten travel destinations. This is the billion-dollar boost that Australia’s tourism industry has been waiting for.”
The arrangement follows Singapore’s recent announcement to welcome fully-vaccinated Australians from 8 November.
“Many Australians live and work in Singapore, and vice versa, said Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne.
“The strong exchanges over many decades have been to the benefit of both our nations.”
To be eligible to travel to Australia from the arranged date, Singaporeans must depart from Singapore but are not required to have spent 14 days in Singapore prior to travel.
Just days before the country’s international travel ban lifted for Australians and their immediate families on Monday, Morrison said he expected the return of double-vaccinated overseas travellers, including backpackers and students to Australia, by the end of the year.
“We will be concluding very, very shortly our arrangements with Singapore, which next month will see particularly students and business travellers who are double vaccinated being the first to come to Australia out of Singapore,” he told Parliament on Wednesday.
“And we welcome the announcements made today in Singapore about Australians being able to travel there from 8 November.”
Singapore said it would extend its vaccinated travel lane (VTL) scheme to Australia for entry into the destination from 8 November 2021 on the same day Morrison made the remarks, with fully-vaccinated Australians allowed to enter Singapore without quarantine for all purposes of travel, after undergoing a COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing.
Featured image source: Facebook/scottmorrison4cook
