Dubai, in only a short few decades, has become one of the world’s most popular and important tourist destinations. Not only is the city a bustling air travel hub, particularly for travellers to Europe and the Middle East, but a bona fide tourist drawcard in its own right: known for its sunny beaches, humming nightlife and luxury shopping, it’s become a playground for the rich and famous; a Middle Eastern Monaco.

Tourism’s so crucial to the United Arab Emirates’ biggest city that they’ve doggedly tried to keep the city open to tourists over the last twelve months despite the COVID-19 crisis: a risky move that has caused frustration both at home and abroad.

Despite Dubai’s laissez-faire approach to tourism during this pandemic, tourist numbers are still a fraction of what they usually are. It’s one thing to have an open-door policy, but with many international tourists unable to leave their own countries (like Australians), if they can’t come, it’s a moot point. However, there’s one group of travellers who’ve helped keep Dubai’s tourism economy ticking over in recent months – one that would have been considered unbelievable even a few years ago.

That group? Israelis.

In August last year, the UAE and Israel reached a historic peace agreement, known as the Abraham Accords, which has normalised relationships between the two countries. Leaving the politics aside, one of the biggest changes this has brought about is that now Israelis can travel to and through the UAE. Separately to the UAE-Israel agreement, Saudi Arabia also decided last year to now allow Israeli flights to fly over its territory, making flights between Dubai and Israel more practical.

The upshot of all this is that Israelis have taken advantage of this thaw in Israeli-Arab relations to travel to Dubai in droves – an exciting development, The New York Times’ Thomas L. Friedman relates:

“In the middle of a global pandemic, at least 130,000 Israeli tourists and investors have flown to Dubai and Abu Dhabi since commercial air travel was established in mid-October! …Something big seems to be stirring.”

Israel is a tiny country of fewer than 9 million citizens, but the excitement among them to explore Dubai, the UAE and the broader Persian Gulf is pretty universal, Israeli travel blogger and humanitarian Peleg Cohen (@lonelypeleg) told CNN Travel in October last year:

“There are a lot of types of Israelis, but I think all types of Israelis will want to fly there.”

This wave of Israeli tourism to Dubai bodes well for further peace in the Middle East and is emblematic of how far both countries have come in recent decades.

“Despite initial worries about Iranian threats and diplomatic fallout from misbehaving tourists, travel agents say there have been only minor hiccups,” AP News reports. Israelis and Dubai might still in somewhat of a ‘honeymoon period’ but so far, so good.

Time will tell if Emiratis will start heading to Tel Aviv once COVID-19 restrictions start to ease, but in the meantime, both Dubai (and the Israelis living it up there) are happy.

We just wish we could join them…

Read Next

• ‘Tourist Fishing’: Italy Unveils Devious New Plan To Combat Crowds
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The post World's Most Unlikely Country Keeping Dubai's Tourism Industry Alive appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

An argument that feels as though it’s lasted as long as time itself is whether it’s best to workout in the morning or in the evening. Both have their pros and cons, with the former camp claiming it wakes them up and prepares them for the day, while those in the latter suggest working out in the evening is a great stress-reliever following a day at work.Two of Hollywood’s leading strongmen – Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Mark Wahlberg – appear to place themselves with the early rising contingent. However, for many, working out in the morning would mean hitting the weights between 5 – 6am before heading to work. That’s not the case for Dwayne and Mark, who recently took to Instagram in separate posts, showing their commitment to pumping iron at 2am.Mad? Maybe. Beneficial? Almost certainly.The Rock is no stranger to insane workouts and inspirational advice, and his recent post could provide some food for thought for those who believe you shouldn’t even consider getting out of bed until at least 9am.“If you’re tired – I get it 100% it’s 2am my time – and I’m tired too, but we gotta fight thru that fatigue and start our week off on a positive uptick that gives us momentum for the rest of the week.”

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“Admittedly, I have a very healthy “obsession” with winning on Monday’s and always finish strong. Gives us an incredible, quiet psychological advantage to have a successful week.”His words are of a similar vein to advice previously regaled by Joe Rogan, who has referred to an “inner bitch”. The inner voice in his head that tells him to stop, but one he has to mentally overcome in order to reap the rewards.The Rock certainly has physical hurdles to overcome as seen in his video, with calluses the size of small mountains (although he claims them to be sexy), “Fight thru it, get your win on Monday – and calluses are sexy AF.” Although they pale in comparison to his previous workouts that have made him bleed.Mark Wahlberg also spruiks the benefits of getting the ball rolling early. Looking visibly sweaty and exhausted, Mark says he got into the gym at “2.30am on a Monday” where he adopted the role of fitness coach, explaining his trainee completed “15,000 metres on the rower in 80 minutes”.

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While he may have been training someone else in this instance, Mark is a regular early riser as YouTuber Laurie Shaw once found out when he attempted Mark’s insane workout regime. Usually one to wake up at 2.30am and to have had his first meal by 3.15, achieving a body of Mark’s stature (impressive, considering he’s approaching 50-years old) is one that requires incredible commitment.Get up and get it.

Watch The Rock’s most epic workouts below.

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The post The Rock & Mark Wahlberg’s Insane 2am Workout Trend Defies Reality appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Every airline in the world has had a rough 12 months. Qantas is no exception. While Australian airlines have been blessed with a larger domestic market to sustain them than, say, Qatar Airways or Emirates (which have taken this chance to grab market share on an international level), that internal energy has proved crucial, with Australians still currently forbidden from travelling overseas.To cope with this last challenging 12 months, Qantas has launched a number of initiatives, from business class memorabilia sell-offs to flights to nowhere. It has also, today, announced the return of mystery flights – a popular trend from the 90s.The trend? Rolling up to the airport, and hopping on whatever flight you felt like, based on whatever was left on offer that day.Qantas says it is doing this to help boost domestic tourism, which has been fiscally crushed by The Bat Kiss and its vacuuming of demand.

Flight to nowhere? . Flight to somewhere? . Flight to who knows where? That’s next. We’re operating three mystery flights across Australia to combat the border blues. Seats go on sale on https://t.co/3SnaE5AA13 at midday Thursday 4 March >> https://t.co/U3ZIstDWwm

— Qantas (@Qantas) March 2, 2021

Qantas’ mystery trips will be available to be booked from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, and passengers will be flown to “undisclosed interstate locations” – then taken on day trips where they land.The day trips will be organised by Qantas and local tour operators.“Our customers tell us that where they can and can’t travel within Australia has been a bit of a mystery lately,” Qantas chief customer officer, Stephanie Tully has said of the initiative.

“These flights turn that mystery into a positive by creating a unique experience for the many people keen to start travelling again.”

The announcement comes after last week’s news Australia’s international borders will be shut until mid-June.

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“All passengers need to do is book and turn up at the airport,” Qantas announced this morning.Passengers will be in the air for about two hours before arriving at their mystery destination.Clues will be dropped along the way, with low-level flybys of landmarks (subject to weather conditions and air traffic control) taking place.RELATED: ‘It Was Super Quiet’: Staycationing In An Australian Quarantine HotelActivities at the destinations range from winemaking and snorkelling to gourmet lunching. Think: premium wine regions and tropical islands.Customers will also be given hints to make sure the destination fits their interests, and will be told whether they need to bring items like snorkels or sneakers.

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This comes in a context where many Australians are more open than ever to explore their domestic surrounds, some even going to great lengths to “pretend they’re in Europe” or to find Australian alternatives to big-ticket overseas destinations (which in some cases end up being better than the ‘real’ deal).DMARGE recently spoke to Maddison Papantoniou, who is currently travelling Australia in a Land Cruiser with her partner Jake Rusanoff, to get a taste of what life is like for domestic travellers right now.She told DMARGE: “We’ve experienced hot outback and vast desert, lush tropics, gnarly surf beaches and bustling cities – all without even jumping on a plane – so we’d say we are coping just fine with not being able to travel overseas right now (although we do hope we are able to in the not so distant future).”Many other Australians are taking to exploring the country on four wheels too.However, Qantas’ initiative is sure to raise the interest (and booking fingers) of many Australians too, with previous initiatives selling out very quickly, and with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine boosting certainty around state borders opening.RELATED: Why Health Passports Are So Damn Important Right Now, According To An Aviation ExpertFlights will all be on Qantas Boeing 737s. Economy tickets begin at $737.Fare sales will begin on Thursday midday on Qantas.com.See the full details of the flights, courtesy of Qantas, below.

Mystery Flight Adventure from Brisbane, Saturday 27 March 2021

This is the perfect getaway if you love:

• Country hospitality
• Gourmet food and wine
• The great outdoors

Mystery Flight Adventure from Sydney, Sunday 18 April 2021

This is the perfect getaway if you love:

• The tropics
• Salt water on your skin
• Long lunching on the beach

Mystery Flight Adventure from Melbourne, Saturday 1 May 2021

This is the perfect getaway if you love:

• The great outdoors (including a little walking)
• Gourmet food and wine
• Regional farmers markets

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The post Qantas Launches Most Mysterious Flight Route Yet appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Sneaker resellers, like used car salesmen or real estate agents, have to be some of the most despised professionals in the world.For the average sneaker fan, it’s already a difficult and expensive endeavour trying to get your hands on limited edition creps in between the different sportswear brands’ cryptic release schedules, stock allocation strategies and long queues at brick-and-mortar stores. Cashed-up, highly organised resellers who hit online stores with ‘bots’ – programs with inhuman reaction times that instantly snap up sneaker stock – or get items ‘backdoored’ to them at retail locations just make the hobby even harder.It’s an unspoken truth in the sneaker world that many of these big resellers often benefit from insider information or relationships with brands or retailers – you don’t end up with a pallet of Yeezys in your garage without knowing someone or doing something dodgy (usually). But most people turn a blind eye; it’s just an uncomfortable aspect of the hobby. But one particularly egregious reseller has caused a full-blown corporate scandal, thanks to his rather convenient family connection.Ann Hebert, a senior Nike employee of 25 years, has stepped down from her role as Vice-President/General Manager for North America after a Bloomberg article revealed that her 19-year-old son runs a lucrative sneaker reselling business named West Coast Streetwear – immediately sparking outrage online.“Nike does not permit its employees to participate in sneaker reselling, and the practice of buying shoes at their retail price only to sell them at a higher price is still taboo to many collectors… commenters questioned whether [the son] was gaining unfair access to limited-edition sneakers with the help of his mother,” Complex reports.

RELATED: Influencer’s ‘Outrageous’ Disrespect For Rare $20,000 Sneakers Sends Hypebeasts Into MeltdownWhile Ann had previously disclosed information about the business to her employer in 2018 and Nike is satisfied that Ann hasn’t directly helped her son, it’s more than a little suspicious. Clearly, her resignation comes in light of the Bloomberg article, which has also prompted her son to go dark on social media and update his shopfront to only listing Supreme t-shirts rather than any sneakers.It’s a particularly bad look for Ann, as it was under her purview that Nike’s SNKRS app was released, which was designed to curtail the influence of sneakers and their botting programs. That her son has been so brazenly using bots to amass his stockpile of rare sneakers smacks of hypocrisy.Needless to say, Joe’s social media has been absolutely inundated with comments from angry sneakerheads.“You are by definition the biggest scammer of all time,” one wrote on Instagram, with legions of others simply calling him a “clown”. The savage comments culminated in this:

“Your mom loses her job because of your beyond shady business. What’s the most popular kicks in jail??”

Ouch.

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The post Nike Vice President’s Son Sprung Stockpiling Enough Rare Sneakers To Fund Rogue State appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

One of the standout cultural trends of 2020 was people getting more creative with their hair. Whether that meant men growing ‘lockdown beards‘, crazy bastards doing the ‘hard reset’ haircut or the resurgence of Australia’s most divisive haircut – the mullet – people took advantage of the fact we weren’t going out as often to radically experiment.Perhaps the most popular thing for people to do was to dye their hair, with all sorts of bleaching and colours being thrown around. It’s even got its own name: the ‘quarantint’. Some people were quicker to get on board than others, like Joe Jonas or DMARGE’s very own Max Langridge. Others, like Scott Disick, are quite late to the party – but in this instance, it’s definitely not a case of ‘better late than never’.The 37-year-old television personality and businessman, most famous for previously dating Kourtney Kardashian, has been spotted on holiday in Miami with some seriously seared hair. Maybe he’s just trying to pay homage to Miami’s neon-soaked aesthetic?Indeed, he doubled down on that vibe on Monday with a pair of similarly lairy Grateful Dead x Nike Dunk sneakers and a gold Patek Philippe Nautilus Chronograph Date (ref. 5980/1R-001) worth a cool $250,000.

You know your hair’s distracting when even bright yellow sneakers and a rare Patek can’t distract from it. For a man who’s known to take himself pretty seriously (have you ever seen him crack a smile?) it’s a disconcerting look.Seems as if Disick’s embraced more than just the Miami wardrobe during his stint down in the Sunshine State. He’s apparently dating 19-year-old model Amelia Hamlin, daughter of actor Harry Hamlin – the pair spotted tooling around Miami in a green Lamborghini.RELATED: Zlatan Ibrahimovic Steps Off Super Yacht And Straight Into His New ‘Zlatmobile’Speaking of tooling around, he’s also bought a rainbow-coloured speedboat, which he’s been jetting around in and taking in Miami’s finest sights. Disick posted a video to his Instagram story yesterday whilst he was out with the boat, where he’d come across a rave party on the back of yet another speedboat. “Miami at its finest” indeed.

Disick’s been busy these days working on his own clothing label, TALENTLESS. The brand courted controversy early last year at the start of the COVID-19 crisis by selling a hoodie with the phrase “please wash your hands” emblazoned on the back.The hair might be a worry but at least he’s got a sense of humour.Speaking of news-worthy hair, read why Sebastian Vettel’s new hairdo has fans worried (and entertained) in equal measure.

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• We Don’t Recommend You Try Michael B. Jordan’s Latest Look In Public

The post Scott Disick’s Retina-Searing Hair Will Be The Last Thing You Look At This Week appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

From giant prawns to Shannon Knoll, Australia has plenty to offer the rest of the world and one thing we seem to be doing pretty well at right now is street art. Sydney, Melbourne and other pockets of creativity around the country have become hotbeds for street and graffiti artists to showcase their talents and make the brick walls and alleyways of Australia great again.From Mulga’s hipster gorilla on Bondi Beach to wall-to-wall graffiti down Melbourne’s Hosier Lane and St Peters May Lane, and Numskull’s reminder that we are ‘Here, Now’ on Sydney’s Park St, here are the 9 places to see Australia’s coolest street art for yourself.

#1 Mulga The Artist – Bondi Beach

There’s nothing like soaking up Sydney on Bondi Beach. The Australian icon is home to white sands, blue water and bikini-clad women, but it’s also home to some great street art.In fact, bright graffiti works and murals run the length of the beach, but this one from Sydney-based Mulga the Artist has to be a D’Marge favourite.Mulga’s Glengarry the Gorilla is featured in the mural with ice-cream in hand and the quote “Sweet summer, stomach filler, this is an icecream, and I’m a gorilla.” It’s a must-see for tourists and Bondi hipsters alike.

#2 Adnate – Bishopgate St, Wickham

As part of the 2013 ‘Hit The Bricks’ art festival in Newcastle, street artist Adnate transformed the drab brick walls of Bishopgate St in Wickham into an artistic masterpiece.The lifelike mural depicts an Aboriginal child’s face and has since become somewhat of a street art icon in Australia. Adnate’s work has been commissioned internationally, in 2013 he entered a portrait in the Archibald Prize and a year later collaborated with friend of D’Marge Vincent Fantauzzo on a CBD mural.

#3 Phibs & Friends – Salisbury Rd, Stanmore

In the depths of Sydney’s Inner West, an incredible street art mural by some of Australia’s most talented street and graffiti artists can be found.Splashed across Stanmore’s Ozanam building on Salisbury Rd, artists involved in the creation were Phibs, Numskull, Linz, Beastman, Thomas Jackson, Birdhat, Ears, Max Berry, Mystery, Scram, Sytak, Brick, Amuse, Perso, Pudl, Skier, Peak, and Pesm.

#4 Fintan Magee – Newtown

Dubbed the ‘Australian Banksy’, Fintan Magee has made his mark on plenty of Sydney suburbs, from Newtown to Leichardt, but also across the pond in Colombia, Argentina, Copenhagen and across the US.One of Magee’s most incredible works has to be ‘The Hikers’ in Newtown, which along with Magee’s other work has actually been supported and endorsed by many local councils.

#5 Pudler – Marrickville

Street artist Pudler has worked on a handful of recognisable Sydney establishments like the WORK-SHOP headquarters on Cleveland St in Redfern but this one in Marrickville is a definite highlight.Pudler lent his creative talent to the Factory Theatre for a One Day Sundays event, resulting in this bright gold and green mural not to be missed if you ever find yourself wandering the streets of Marrickville.

#6 Misc. Artists – May Lane, St. Peters

May Lane in the Sydney suburb of St. Peters is a prime example of how support for legal street art is gaining momentum in the city, and actually becoming a drawcard for tourists and visitors.The May Lane Art Project, directed by Tugi Balog, began when he invited artists to paint the walls outside his framing business 6 years ago and has since attracted artists from all over the world. Despite some resistance from local residents, May Lane is no doubt an eye-catching and unique feature of St. Peters.

#7 Misc. Artists – Hosier Lane, Melbourne

Much like May Lane in St. Peters, Melbourne’s Hosier Lane has become a tourist destination as much as a legal place for street artists to showcase their talents.The iconic laneway has been noted for the quality and often political nature of its art and has been featured in the state-sponsored book ‘The Melbourne Design Guide’ and in Tourism Victoria’s ‘Lose Yourself in Melbourne’ advertising campaign. It also features work from internationally recognised recognised street artist Banksy.

#8 Numskull – Park St, Sydney

“Modern society is fast paced. Time is precious and often neglected. We need to slow down, take it all in and start living in the moment. This mural will inspire onlookers to challenge their perspective about how precious life’s moments are.”Numskull’s Park St mural ‘Here, Now’ was painted for the Art & About Festival and is one of Sydney’s largest murals.

The post Where To Find Australia’s Coolest Street Art appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

You’ve heard of catfishing, you’ve cringed at dogfishing, now, welcome to ‘tourist fishing.’

Though the first two concepts are dishonest dating strategies, the third – what we’re dubbing ‘tourist fishing’ – is Italy’s new approach to combatting overtourism in its big city hubs.

It’s also not dishonest, just smart.

How does it work? The idea is to remove individual pieces of art from galleries like Florence’s Uffizi (which hosts such masterpieces as Botticelli’s ‘The Birth Of Venus‘ and Parmigianino’s ‘Madonna with the Long Neck‘) and place them in regional towns that have a historical link to them.

This has previously been done on a special occasion basis (in 2019, a landscape drawing by Leonardo da Vinci was sent to the artist’s hometown of Vinci, in the 500th anniversary year of his death). The idea now is to do the same thing but more broadly (and permanently).

The initiative reponds to two things. One: the absurd number of visitors that had taken to trampling through cities like Florence, Venice and Rome pre-COVID-19, many of whom misbehaved, forcing authorities to bring in all sorts of new laws to cope with the influx.

RELATED: Italy Set To Limit Access To Iconic Rome Monument 

Two: the opportunity, now things are quieter, to rebuild in a way that makes Italy better equipped to cope with tourism – and a better place to visit – when travel really does get back to normal. This is something experts have predicted will happen around 2024.

The initiative also runs alongside the ‘Albergo Diffuso’ concept of scattered hotels, which is like a state-run Airbnb scheme, where you stay in historical buildings in deep Tuscany (say), rather than a bright loft above a Byron Bay cafe…

RELATED: Bizarre New Hotel Concept In Southern Italy Could Save The Nation’s Tourism Industry

In a bid to reduce the 10-hour long queues in the city’s museums and art galleries, and stop true art lovers from being inconvenienced by hedonistic tourists rushing to take selfies with inappropriate parts of ‘well sculpted’ anatomies, the director of Florence’s Uffizi wants to divert tourists away from Florence.

Introducing ‘Uffizi Diffuzi.’

“In this project, artworks stored in the Uffizi’s deposit will be put on show throughout the surrounding area of Tuscany, turning Italy’s most famous region into one big ‘scattered’ museum,” CNN Travel reports.

Uffizi director Eike Schmidt told CNN Travel he had the idea during 2020’s lockdown, and the driving force behind it is to “create a different type of tourism.” It will also, he said, “ground culture in people’s daily lives.”

“Art can’t survive on big galleries alone.”

Schmidt also told CNN Travel there is already some proof of concept: according to him a 2019 exhibition on the 15th-century Battle of Anghiari, in eastern Tuscany, held in Anghiari itself, quadrupled the number of visitors for the local museum’s previous record.

Schmidt is planning “at least 60, maybe even 100 exhibition spaces” across Tuscany, and, according to CNN Travel, “has hinted that they will include a villa that once belonged to the Medici family in Montelupo Fiorentino, half an hour west of Florence; port city Livorno; belle epoque spa town Montecatini Terme; and Careggi, where another Medici villa sits just east of Florence.”

Since the project’s announcement, other towns have expressed their interest in being involved too.

For those worried about the art, Schmidt highlighted in his conversation with CNN Travel that restoration of works could form part of the project too, and that for those visiting Florence there will still be plenty of big-ticket pieces on display.

“We already have over 3,000 works of art on display in the Uffizi – that’s enough… The Uffizi Diffusi will bring to light works of art that currently nobody can see in a calmer, more intimate setting.”

Phase one of ‘Uffizi Diffuzi’ is set to begin this summer.

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The post 'Tourist Fishing': Italy Unveils Devious New Plan To Combat Crowds appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

When you’re at the cutting edge of modern fashion, sometimes you look sharp, and sometimes you just get cut.Justin Bieber is a man who’s been cut many times before, but it hasn’t stopped him from going out on a limb and trying new styles. Normally he’s a pretty dapper dude, but it seems as if footwear is his kryptonite: sometimes he absolutely nails it, like with these ‘People’s Jordans’ he wore a few weeks ago or these funky Clarks Wallabees he was spotted in last year…But then he’ll turn around and go out in public in Crocs – “the footwear contraceptive for men” – or don something like these bizarre Yeezys. It’s a real crapshoot, with crap being the operative term. The man has an insatiable appetite for rubber clogs.Now it seems he’s found a new, equally as questionable footwear option to torment us with – and has topped it off with some questionable sunglasses to boot. ‘The Biebs’ was spotted on the streets of Paris yesterday wearing some bright yellow woven slide-looking things; the sheer vivacity of his kicks at complete odds with the earthy palette of the rest of his outfit (which is actually pretty crisp). Well, except for those awful pink sunglasses.

The basket-weave, ballet flat-looking sneakers are a strange look. And that colour! Bieber might argue it ‘pops’ (and it certainly does) but it’s burning our corneas. He’s got form in this department: the 27-year-old has a well-established affinity for all things yellow. Take this all-yellow outfit he was spotted in last year (which he also paired with a yellow gold Rolex. Guess he’s a sucker for a theme).RELATED: Chris Hemsworth Angers The Gods With Controversial Watch ChoiceWe wonder what the well-dressed denizens of Paris think (at least it’s not boring, we suppose).Last week, Bieber announced that his sixth studio album Justice was almost done, and due to be released on March 19th. He’s already released three singles from the album: Holy and Lonely last year, and Anyone on New Year’s Day this year. A fourth single, Hold On, will drop this Friday.

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The post Justin Bieber Spotted Wearing Most Questionable Footwear & Sunglasses Combo Ever appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Australia’s ‘wheels and wings’ industry flatlined last year. We scarcely need to explain why: both domestic and international bookings fell off the roof in March. Over the following 12 months, international travel remained (and still remains) off the cards, while domestically the situation has improved (the ‘wheels’ side of things picked up dramatically, in fact).Now, as of March 2021, we find ourselves in a strange sort of limbo – we’re able to travel domestically (and to watch those overseas in less fortunate COVID-19 related situations travel), yet unable to bounce off abroad ourselves if we please.Experts remind Australians to be grateful for this. It’s why we are a (relatively) COVID-19 free island paradise. Some worry we risk becoming a hermit kingdom. Amid all this, many wonder what will become of Australia’s business travel scene.

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With overseas experts like Skift editor in chief Tom Lowry and CNN’s Richard Quest debating whether, the global work-from-home revolution in mind, business travel in America will ever return to previous levels, last week DMARGE was inspired to ask what will become of Australia’s business travel scene in 2021 and beyond by a rare Qantas email.RELATED: ‘Pretending To Be In Greece’: How Australians Are Managing Without An Overseas Jaunt This SummerThe question came into even sharper focus this week, as we spoke to Rico Merkert, Professor and Chair in Transport and Supply Chain Management at the University of Sydney (and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Air Transport Management), seeking his take on the future of Australian business travel, as well as his thoughts on Qantas’ announcement that it would be soon trialling the IATA Travel Pass (otherwise known as a health passport).“The Qantas trial of the IATA Travel Pass is exactly the same initiate Air New Zealand signed up to last week,” Merkert told DMARGE. “Same deal and there are other international airlines trialling it too (e.g. Emirates).”“It is a global initiative led by IATA and through being able to verify authentication of COVID health records of passengers worldwide, it will give not only passengers but also anyone working in the aviation industry as well as governments confidence that those details (test results, vaccination records etc.) will be accurate.”

“This will allow airlines to resume safe and quarantine free international travel and will hopefully lead to international borders reopening sooner than what would be the case without such a global Travel Pass.”

When it comes to getting international travel started again, Merkert emphasised the importance of The Jab: “Beyond health passports, the key will be to get the vaccination programs implemented/rolled-out as soon as practically possible, both domestically and internationally.”Merkert also told us, in his view, that health passports will not be a silver bullet for keeping Australian interstate borders open this year, should flare-ups arise.

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“Domestic border closures within Australia are more a political decision and as the IATA Travel pass is limited to air travel passengers, it won’t be able to guarantee safe interstate (road) travel within Australia. It will somewhat help domestic travel, but its focus is on international travel and in particular international air travel, say between two travel bubbles.”

“It will be incredibly effective at large international hubs, such as Singapore or Dubai (where passengers from many nations mingle at high density).”

RELATED: Point Hacker’s ‘Crazy’ Solution For Australians Stranded Abroad Just Might WorkFlight Centre Australia’s managing director, James Kavanagh told the AFR last year: “We expect business travel to return quicker than leisure travel, but not at the same rate. Companies are busy examining their internal OH&S [occupational health and safety] policies around having staff on the road [in the era of coronavirus].”On the other side of the coin, Jamie Pherous of Corporate Travel Management told CNBC the company will be a “much bigger business” on the way out of the pandemic because it took advantage of the market and made “very sound strategic acquisitions.”Bringing the discussion away from ~the industry~ and back to your holiday plans, frequent flyer and owner of Flight Hacks, Immanuel Debeer recently told DMARGE he has faith in Qantas’ proposed October restart date for international travel, expressing hope for international travel at some point in 2021: “Yes I think it’s likely to happen in October. Once all the oldies are vaccinated the Australian government has zero excuse to keep us locked up.”

“The only spanner in the works is the fact that they’ve gone for a ‘zero covid’ approach. So although October is realistic, no doubt there will be a lot of restrictions in place. Doubt they will let tourists come in by then, unless they are from certain ‘green zone’ countries.”

Immanuel also said on Instagram he still has Europe in July (tentatively) booked. A big call but perhaps an inspired one? Only time and ticket sales will tell.

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The post Why 'Health Passports' Are So Damn Important, According To An Aviation Expert appeared first on DMARGE Australia.