The state began to move away from strict controls and lockdowns late last year.

Juliana and Rudolf Nemeth from Hungary were reunited with their daughter and her husband Zsófi and Dávid Kajtia after their arrival on the first international flight to Brisbane Airport following Australia’s reopening of its international borders to COVID-vaccinated travelers on Monday.

In the same context, Australia on Monday fully reopened its international borders to travelers vaccinated against the coronavirus after nearly two years of closure during the pandemic, as tourists returned and hundreds of people reunited with family and friends.

More than 50 international flights will arrive in the country on this day, including 27 landings in Sydney, its largest city, where the tourism and hospitality sectors look forward to restarting after the significant impact caused by COVID restrictions during the pandemic.

It is worth noting that tourism is one of the largest industries in Australia, valued at more than 55 billion dollars and employing about five percent of the country's workforce. But the sector was damaged after the country closed its borders in March 2020.

Australia has moved away from the vaccine passport controls and lockdowns since late last year and began living with the virus after reaching higher vaccination levels. Skilled migrants, international students, and backpackers have been allowed to travel to Australia since November in a phased reopening process.

Passengers heading to Sydney by air were welcomed with the phrase "Welcome Back World!" painted on a banner near the aircraft runways, while people dressed in kangaroo costumes greeted travelers and a DJ played music from a car decorated with a banner reading "You deserved this wait."

Tourism Minister Dan Tehan told the Australian ABC station from Sydney Airport as he welcomed travelers, "It’s a party here, the music, the smiles on people’s faces, I’m sure they’ll be dancing soon."

Tehan said there would be a “very strong” recovery in the tourism market as Qantas Airways looks to carry more than 14,000 passengers to Australia this week.

With the full reopening of the borders, the outbreak of the Omicron coronavirus variant in Australia appears to have peaked with hospital admissions steadily declining over the past three weeks.

The majority of the total pandemic cases in Australia, approximately 2.7 million confirmed cases, have been recorded since the appearance of Omicron in late November. The total deaths have reached 4,929.

Just over 17,000 new cases and 17 deaths were recorded by midday Monday.

Edited by: Dima Abu Khair