The arrival of New Zealand passengers from October 16 without the need for quarantine in Australia is an exciting new turning point for business, trade and tourism after months of uncertainty.
"Tens of thousands of struggling tourism, farming and other businesses will be laying out the welcome mat for our Kiwi cousins," ACCI CEO James Pearson said.
"Although these arrangements will only initially commence to Darwin and Sydney, this is a great beginning and we are confident more cities will follow. It is logical Canberra and Adelaide should be next cabs off the rank given they have already relaxed border restrictions with low COVID risk regions."
For six months ACCI has been working with Government and other trade and tourism stakeholders on a trans-Tasman travel bubble.
Less than a week ago, the Tourism Restart Taskforce, convened by ACCI, released an updated Tourism Restart Timetable 2.0 which proposed restarting travel with New Zealand in October. "It's great news to see this plan realised," Mr Pearson said.
"International travel is so important to our economy, and even with more domestic interstate travel starting to open up, it has no hope of replacing the $45 billion revenue from international tourism each year.
"Once we have a proven model for international travel, we can quickly look at travel from other nations and for business travellers and tourists. We have received inquiries from South Korea, which is looking to restart business travel with us, and there are a number of other nations that have also attained high levels of COVID suppression. We should look to opening with these nations as soon as possible over the coming months."
