Millthorpe-based travel agent Michelle Slack-Smith who runs boutique agency, Adventum Travel, says she's seen a surge in interest from clients in overseas travel since international borders opened.

"The last 10 days have been great," she said.

"It's really nice to see it coming back."

The seasoned traveller and travel agent has been booking leisure holidays for her Orange and Sydney clients to destinations including Europe, Canada and Fiji and the United States.

She says she's seen a trend of families with older teenagers deciding to go on family adventures for the European summer: "I've had four families book to Europe that are that kind of demographic," she said.

"This kind of trip would normally be booked 12 or 18 months out, but here we are in March and people are going in May and June.

"I think they've been sitting waiting and thinking "is it going to be ok?" and now it's "yep, I feel confident it's going to be OK - I'm going to book."

While COVID has been tough on travel agents, Ms Slack Smith believes they will be more valuable than ever as people start to navigate international travel again.

"More people are wanting a travel agent because things change every day. I get all the alerts, so I know exactly what's happening."

However, while the world is opening up, some destinations still aren't quite ready for travellers she warned, especially nations with low vaccination rates and limited medical infrastructure.

"They can't afford to have travellers bringing COVID or any other disease into the country. This is why we need to make sure we're vaccinated to travel.

"It's not just protecting us it's protecting the countries that do not have a medical system like we have."

Orange based international tour operator Nicole Farrell, who runs textile tours to India and Morocco, agrees.

She is not even considering running her tours again until at least 2023.

"I made the decision in July last year that I would not do any tours in 2022, no matter what happened. I'm not in a rush, I just think I'd prefer to see how things play out."

"I think we need to consider other countries and how they're situated. For example, our guide in India, he hasn't had his second vaccination yet."

She said two years without international tourism also meant workers had found jobs elsewhere and hotels would have to find new staff and retrain them.

"We don't want to be the test case - we want to wait until the tour is of a great quality and experience."

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