Christmas Island sees boost from Australian travel bubble

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 – which was the temporary site of a quarantine camp in the early days of the pandemic – 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.

Since then, visitor numbers have been slowly on the rise.

A travel bubble has been struck up between Western Australia, Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Photo / Unsplash

"It was about four months we were closed and it would have been devastating if we kept going that way," Christmas Island Tourism Association marketing manager Jahna Luke told the Herald.

"After the bubble was announced it took two or three weeks for people to get their bookings in place but we are really noticing the numbers coming through.

"It is currently enough, we are coming into our peak season normally November to December at this stage not sure what our peak season will be."

Usually, about 66 per cent of Christmas Island's visitors are from Australia – including about half from Western Australia – and the rest are international visitors who arrive from Jakarta.

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A post shared by Cocos Keeling Islands (@cocoskeelingislands) on Aug 8, 2019 at 7:31pm PDT

Christmas Island, south of Java, is popular for its lush rainforest, waterfalls, native wildlife and reefs, while the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, about halfway between Perth and Sri Lanka, is often billed as Australia's last unspoilt paradise.

Two flights operate a week between Perth and Christmas Island, and flights to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands are available direct from Perth or via Christmas Island.

Under the current travel bubble arrangements with Western Australia, visitors are exempt from quarantine if they have not been outside WA or the Indian Ocean Territories for 14 days prior to their entry.

Residents in other states and territories are currently not able to travel to Christmas or Cocos (Keeling) Islands.