Destinations Wills and Kate will visit on bushfire recovery tour

With their royal visit set to boost support for Australia’s bushfire recovery, here are the places Kate and Wills are likely to visit.

Prince William and Kate Middleton are set to return to Australia, six years after their first tour here together, to visit the bushfire-ravaged regions of the country.

The royal couple have been distressed by the death toll, destruction of thousands of homes and widespread loss of flora and fauna during the summer disaster.

“We continue to be shocked and deeply saddened to hear about the fires that are destroying homes, livelihoods and wildlife across much of Australia,” the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wrote in an Instagram post on their official account in January.

The royal tour will mark the couple’s first trip to Australia since 2014.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the tour will spur more international financial support for survivors and volunteer firefighters, and preliminary negotiations between the Morrison government and Kensington Palace have been underway for weeks.

This isn’t the first “recovery” trip the royals have made: in 2011, Prince William visited Queensland two months after the peak of the state’s flood disaster, and a trip to New Zealand in 2019 took place six weeks after 51 people were shot dead in a mosque and Islamic centre in Christchurch.

The tour has the potential to raise more international donations for the recovery effort, given the couple’s high profile and massive following on social media, and hopefully reinvigorate the nation’s tourism industry.

Communities at the centre of some of Australia’s favourite holiday spots may be starting to rebuild, but the damaging notion that the whole country has burned down has had a devastating impact on travel.

An American media outlet shared this comparison, with the caption "Australia's fires is juxtaposed with a map of the United States” leading to the idea the whole country was impacted.

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According to the Australian Tourism Export Council, bushfires have so far cost the country $4.5 billion in lost revenue, and reinvigorating the tourism industry has been dubbed “the biggest challenge in living memory”.

While it’s unclear whether or not their three children – Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis – will accompany them, the Duke and Duchess are expected to visit New South Wales and Victoria, where bushfires have caused widespread devastation.

Planning is not finalised, however, and other states including South Australia may be added.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge helped promote the Blue Mountains to an international audience back in 2014. Picture: Arthur Edwards- WPA Pool/Getty Images )

In New South Wales, Kate and Wills are likely to return to the Blue Mountains, which they helped promote to an international audience during their first royal tour together in 2014.

With its tall cliffs and deep valleys, dense bushland and charming towns, the area is internationally famous and doesn’t normally struggle to attract visitors.

While the World Heritage-listed region is no stranger to the horrors of bushfire season, it has suffered in the recent fires with 19 homes lost and 70 damaged, and fears that as much as 80 per cent of the protected area has been burnt.

The Snowy Mountains, South Coast and Southern Highlands are other regions that the Duke and Duchess may visit while on tour.

Raymond Island in East Gippsland is home to one of Victoria’s largest wild koala populations. Picture: Visit Victoria

Further south in Victoria, the East Gippsland region – renowned for its national parks, beaches and local food and wine – saw some of the worst devastation caused by the bushfires.

More than 800,000 hectares of land was burnt and an unprecedented state of disaster was declared.

In 2010, Prince William’s first royal tour on behalf of the Queen saw him visit the regions in Victoria devastated by the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, so it’s highly likely that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will make the trip to East Gippsland as part of this year’s visit.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge might also pay a visit to the state’s Alpine Region.

Burnt flora is seen at Vivonne Bay on January 11 on Kangaroo Island. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

If South Australia is added to their visit, the royal couple will likely make a trip to Kangaroo Island.

The island, loved by tourists from all around the world for its pristine beaches, dense bushlands and abundance of native animals, has been tragically impacted by the bushfires.

The wildlife, bushland and island’s residents have all suffered greatly, and two lives were lost battling the blazes that razed more than 200,000 hectares of land.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge might also pay a visit to the Adelaide Hills region.