[Source: Reuters]

Australia’s Victoria state removed entry restrictions to citizens of neighboring New South Wales today, allowing almost blanket reciprocal travel between the country’s two biggest states ahead of the busy Christmas period.

Travel between the pair, home to more than half Australia’s 25 million population, has been severely disrupted for months because of an outbreak of Delta variant-fuelled COVID-19 cases.

Travel company Flight Centre says open borders between Australia’s economic powerhouses will be a major boost for hotels, airlines and other tourism businesses as flights resume between Sydney and Melbourne, one of the busiest domestic routes in the world before the pandemic.