International tourists and business travellers began arriving in Australia after it fully reopened its international borders to travellers vaccinated against the coronavirus on Monday, bringing together families in tearful reunions after separations of two years or longer forced by some of the toughest pandemic measures of any democracy in the world.

More than 50 international flights are expected to fly into the country through the day, including 27 to Sydney, its largest city, as the tourism and hospitality sectors look to rebuild after getting hammered by COVID-19 restrictions.

Travelers were greeted at Sydney’s airport by well-wishers waving toy koalas and Australian foods including Tim Tams chocolate cookies and jars of Vegemite spread.

Federal Tourism Minister Dan Tehan welcomed the first arrivals on a Qantas flight from Los Angeles which landed at 6:20 a.m. local time.

Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison said she expected tourist numbers would take two years to rebound to pre-pandemic levels.

Tourism is one of Australia's biggest industries, worth more than A$60 billion ($43 billion) and employing about 5% of the country's workforce. But the sector was crippled after the country shut its borders in March 2020.

Qantas on Monday was flying in passengers from eight overseas destinations including Vancouver, Singapore, London and New Delhi.

Virgin Australia said it was seeing positive trends in domestic bookings and continued to assess demand for international flights.

As borders fully reopen, Australia's outbreak of the Omicron coronavirus variant appears to have passed its peak with hospital admissions steadily falling over the past three weeks. The bulk of Australia's pandemic total of about 2.7 million confirmed cases has been detected since the emergence of Omicron in late November. 

Just over 17,000 new cases  were registered by midday on Monday .
-Reuters/AP