Businesses near Canberra university campuses are celebrating Prime Minister Scott Morrison's announcement that international students will be allowed to return from December 1.
Once a bustling hive of activity, the Acton campus of ANU was dolefully quiet on a Monday lunchtime. Most cafes and restaurants were patronised by only one or two customers - open, but barely surviving.
For Asian grocery Daily Market manager Callum Song, the news students could be back soon was a relief.
"I'm quite excited about that. I hope there'll be more students coming back by the end of this year or early next year. Then probably we'll see the business picking up again," he said.
"We're Asian groceries and we're just outside of ANU campus, so mainly our customers are uni students - especially the international students."
Mr Song said business had worsened over the last two years, even as Canberra opened up.
"This year is getting worse, actually, because no students are coming back. Just more and more people are going back to their home country, so the business is getting very bad," he said.
Co-owner of O2 Hair Kelvin Fong said while 2021 was the "worst year", opening up to international students meant the business could survive.
Mr Fong and business partner Yumiko Zhang said up to 80 per cent of the salon's usual clientele were students.
"During COVID, my salary [was] down 50 per cent, or even more," Mr Fong said.
"I think we have experienced the worst, worst ever. Next year we will get out."
The business owners were all cautiously optimistic. They agreed students would come back to Australia slowly.
"It's great news ... [but] even though they come back eventually, I don't think they're going to come back straight away," Ms Zhang said.
Mr Song said he didn't anticipate international student numbers would reach pre-COVID levels.
"I think it will take time. I think [it] depends on the policy of the government. Personally I think there won't be as many as the international students coming back as before," he said.
Mr Song said the country's relationship with China and other countries might mean fewer overseas students would come back to Australian universities.
'[But] if half of international students were coming back here, that is probably still is much better for our business already," he said.
