It has been a long two years for those with family overseas, and the federal government's announcement to reopen borders for all countries without restrictions has made the future look a lot brighter for many Canberrans.
It was confirmed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday that international travel to Australia is back for double vaccinated tourists from February 21, after almost two years of restrictions since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.
This is welcome news for Chris Finley, whose immediate family and friends are based in Phoenix, Arizona and says he looks forward to it being easier for visitors to come to Canberra.
"My parents had a trip that was cancelled last year, they were going to come down and visit. We also had a plan for them to get here in time for my graduation ceremony which was today, so it would have been nice if they opened a bit earlier," Mr Finley said.
"It's definitely exciting that borders will be back open and my friends and family from the US will be able to visit. Obviously the last couple of years kind of made that a bit difficult, I also had another friend who was going to come over and that got cancelled too.
"I'm looking forward to it opening because I'm hoping to do a bit of travelling, it was always the plan to work for a year and then head out to travel so it's nice to see everything kind of returning back to normal and the possibility of being able to go overseas."
Australia has already been allowing tourists from New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore and Japan to enter for a couple of months, however for New Zealand citizen Miles Harford that hasn't made his situation any easier.
New Zealand still has hotel quarantine requirements for anyone who has travelled to Australia, but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced changes last Thursday that New Zealanders and Australians can now quarantine at home from February 27.
"Whatever restrictions are in New Zealand are effectively going to be the restrictions you have to go through despite it being open to come to Australia," Mr Harford said.
"The recent change to home isolation is really exciting, I think my family's going to come over hopefully in the next month or so because it's pretty easy for them to go home and isolate on the way back.
"It's obviously much less expensive, so it's way more accessible for people to actually visit. So the possibility of actually seeing family or friends in the future is very exciting because it's been a tough few years."
Canberra's tourism operators share the anticipation for eased restrictions, with chair of the Canberra Region Tourism Leaders Forum David Marshall welcoming the changes.
"We're very pleased about the eased restrictions, Canberra had about 290,000 international visitors pre-COVID so for us it's a very good market," Dr Marshall said.
"It'll bring international students back, which is so critical for employment in convention centres and restaurants who employ students when they're at university.
"It's been very hard for the accommodation sector as well, to find staff to service rooms and do a lot of other things like that, so I think the opening of borders on a national basis and also in Canberra will be very, very welcome."
During 2019 international visitors to the ACT spent $1.8 billion during their visit to Australia. While there are aims to get back to that level, Dr Marshall says "there are adjustments that will be in play."
"The biggest concern for everybody is will the government close the international borders again, and we hope that will never happen, but secondly, it's whether the borders within each state will remain open for travellers," he said.
"We also have to overcome the challenge of how people will get back into their own countries, like four to six weeks ago the United States was advising against travelling here and New Zealand has been particularly severe on Australia.
"Overall it's been a horrendous few months and years for the industry but hopefully we're starting to come to the end of this period."
