Fortress crumbles: tourism is looking up down under

‘Don’t Go Small. Go Australia’: this is Tourism Australia’s message as it tries to entice travellers with R436m campaign

21 February 2022 - 19:42 By Ben Westcott and Georgina Mckay

For British banker Roger Smyth, Australia’s border reopening couldn’t come soon enough. After landing at Sydney Airport on Monday morning, he embraced his girlfriend Danni Wang for the first time in three months — the pair now plan to marry during Smyth’s weeklong visit.

“I tried every day to get here,” says Smyth, who met Wang in Tokyo before she moved to Australia to study. “We tried to make it on Valentine’s Day. I applied for an exception, but I got declined.”..

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