Vanuatu Tourism Office (VTO) has officially announced that the country will open its borders to fully-vaccinated international travellers from 1 July 2022 with no quarantine or arrival caps. However, any testing requirements and other restrictions are yet to be confirmed.
Travel advisors can now book their clients on flights to Port Vila with the country’s national carrier, Air Vanuatu thanks to the airline relaunching flights from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne earlier this week to begin on 1 July.
“This is fantastic news for the local tourism industry and future international travellers”, says the CEO of the Vanuatu Tourism Office, Mrs Adela Issachar Aru.
“We’ve kept Vanuatu beautiful, and we’re thrilled to be welcoming travellers back to our shores come 1 July.”
“We’ll be using the next two months to help ready our tourism operators and are working closely with the Ministry of Health, the Department of Tourism and other relevant stakeholders to ensure our people and visitors will be safe when they do travel,” Mrs Adela Issachar Aru said.
The local industry is currently preparing for the arrival of international travellers by refreshing and finalising new products, liaising with Australian wholesalers to showcase their products, re-hiring staff and ensuring their hotels and restaurants comply with the Safe Business Operations (SBO) guidelines.
“We’re so excited to be welcoming Australians back to Mangoes Resort. We’ve spent the last two years working tirelessly to update and refresh the resort and we can’t wait to show Australians the beauty of Vanuatu once again,” says Michelle Clements, Managing Director of Mangoes Resort & Restaurant in Port-Vila.
The Vanuatu Government had announced a Roadmap to the Safe Reopening of the Borders earlier this year, describing the protocols to mitigate the risk of importation and spread of COVID-19 and containment measures for any in-country transmission.
At this stage, however, no further details have been released regarding whether there will be any pre-departure or arrival testing requirements or other mandated restrictions to travel from Australia and New Zealand.
For more, visit: www.vanuatu.travel/au