OUR TICKET TO WORLD IS ALMOST WITHIN REACH

EVEN if you love your job, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of planning your next holiday. Just the thought of getting away somewhere special, especially to far-flung destinations, can really lift the spirits.

So the news that Scott Morrison has set out his clear plan for Australians to again travel overseas is an encouraging development.

But like the daydreaming excitement of browsing a holiday brochure, Queenslanders are still some way off the thrill of buying a ticket.

Many Australians could travel internationally as early as next month when states like NSW hit the magic 80 per cent double vaccination level.

Queensland has further to go in the race to get to that mark, but we also have doubt that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk would abandon border restrictions at that point anyway. And these goals matter. Tourism and hospitality businesses in the Far North have been missing domestic tourists for months, but have been starved of international visitors for the best part of two years.

It’s easy to forget what a bucket-list destination we are for travellers from Europe, North America and Asia.

They were an important part of our tourism mix and it’s time we were able to safely welcome them back.

Although the return of international tourism is important to business, these first steps of the federal government’s road map are not about that.

The first people on planes to the rest of the world will be Aussies visiting friends and family overseas. It will also mean stranded Aussies can come home without fear of quarantine caps leaving them bumped off flights.

Census figures show something like a third of Cairns people were born overseas and many more have generational ties abroad.

This fresh hope of family reunions will mean so much.

Sean Atkins

Chief of staff