After almost two years of watching his English-language school fade behind Australia's closed border, this weekend will be "absolutely huge" for Simon Craft.
Queensland has announced quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated international travellers will be scrapped from 1am Saturday.
"It's really hard to put into words how I feel … absolutely huge is about the only way I can describe it," Mr Craft said.
"When the announcement was made to close international borders in March 2020, we had around 300 international students with us, around 35 staff.
While his Southport-based school Inforum Education has managed to stay afloat, Mr Craft said Queensland still had some catching up to do.
Students eager to start
Two new students will be starting at Inforum on Monday with almost 50 more by the end of April.
But Mr Craft said that number would increase.
"We've already been getting a lot of enquiries from overseas students and agents about when they can start," he said.
He said decisions by New South Wales and and Victoria to welcome international students several months earlier than Queensland meant "we are behind".
"I know of colleagues in Sydney and Melbourne who have schools and they already have 40 to 50 students studying with them," Mr Craft said.
On Wednesday, the federal government announced it would rebate the $600 visa fee usually charged to international students and backpackers.
A million 'sorely missed' visitors
Destination Gold Coast chief executive Patricia O'Callaghan said the international visitor market had been "sorely missed".
"It's over a million visitors annually we haven't been welcoming and they are worth over $1.3 billion to our local economy," she said.
She said domestic tourism had propped up the industry but the new key priority markets would be Japan, Singapore, Korea and South-East Asia.
"We've been sitting above 80 per cent occupancy, our tourism operators have reported solid bookings … but we have been missing very much that international market," she said.
Ms O'Callaghan said the easing of travel restrictions would "also be about the re-establishment of our workforce as well" with Tourism Australia developing a $3 million federally funded campaign focused on backpackers.
"Our backpackers were such a huge part of our workforce here on the Gold Coast, we've missed them, and as we recover, they will be critical to ensure our economy booms once again in that international space."
