Australia’s tourism industry has urged the Home Affairs Department to speed up tourist visa processing as some travellers face months-long delays to enter the country.
In spite of fully reopening to the world in February, Australia has seen a slow recovery for tourist operators and numbers of overseas visitors far below pre-pandemic levels.
“If we make it difficult for them to get a visa and it takes forever, they’ll take their money and trip elsewhere,” Margy Osmond, chief executive of the Tourism and Transport Forum, told the 7.30 program of ABC.
“It is actually damaging our brand not to be able to get those visas out the door as quickly as possible in the most appropriate way.”…