AFTER lusting after a return to international travel for so long, it will be interesting to see how quickly Australians resume the practice.
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The international travel of our memories - the favourite trips that would have sustained many a wanderer while their national, state and then town borders closed - was the international travel of packed planes and airports.
Apart from those who sought out isolated resorts on tropical islands, the whole point of travel was to mix and mingle and interact with strangers in a strange land. No-one ever visited one of the great cities of the world to spend their time hiding in their hotel room, watching the teeming streets through their window.
But will that still be the point in a COVID world?
We'll get some early indications about how Australians feel about moving beyond the safety and security of their home base as Sydneysiders are let loose on regional NSW from this Monday and as New South Welshmen and women are allowed to enter some of the hermit kingdoms, such as Queensland or Western Australia, in their own country in the coming months.
That will tell part of the story.
What will be a much bigger step will be those who choose to make a return to the long-haul flight, on a plane where you share air with a number of people you've never met, for a visit to a country whose health system may or may not be the equivalent of Australia's.
As well as the travel itinerary, there'll be vaccination rates to consider, curves to scrutinise, mask mandates to mull over.
Or perhaps we're looking at it the wrong way around.
Travel has always had an element of unpredictability, of a step into the unknown, of leaving behind the safe and familiar - sometimes for six months, sometimes for only a week or two.
And Australians have long been known as enthusiastic travellers - as at home on a cramped Qantas flight to the northern hemisphere as we are on an east coast beach or an inland river.
Bathurst residents will again be seen at Kingsford Smith Airport, scanning the departures and clutching a boarding pass and the handle of their luggage. There's no doubt about that.
The question is how many will be seen and how soon will they be there.
What do you think?
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