Christmas Island: Tourists have returned with such gusto there's hope the tourism season may be saved. Photo / Raphael Bick, Unsplash
Tourism is booming in a couple of idyllic holiday destinations that are benefiting from a travel bubble with the Australian mainland.
Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands are seeing a surge in Australian visitors since a travel bubble was struck with Western Australia in July.
Since then, WA visitors
have rushed to the Indian Ocean Territories with such gusto there's hope the islands' devastated tourism season may be saved, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Christmas Island β which was the temporary site of a quarantine camp in the early days of the pandemic β saw 2190 holiday-makers last year, but the visitor count had only just passed 320 at the start of August 2020, the Herald reported.
None of the Indian Ocean Territories reported cases of COVID-19 but they were shut off from the Australian mainland during the pandemic, before reopening to Western Australian visitors only in July.
