Steve Edmondson is hearing a few more foreign accents these days.
This week, he welcomed a couple from Italy celebrating their honeymoon who “jumped on” a boat last minute. Around the town of Port Douglas, he says an international flavour is slowly returning.
But even still, Mr Edmondson, who has run boutique tours of the Great Barrier Reef for 20 years, says it’s been more of “a trickle” than a stampede.
And on his boats, the familiar Aussie twang still well and truly drowns most foreign accents out.
“I’d say at this stage we’re about 15 per cent international tourists,” he said.
“Before COVID it was a 50:50 spread.”
This week marks six months since Australia hinged open its border to once again welcome international tourists into the country.
Yet, numbers are still well down on pre-COVID levels.
ABS…
