Sally Cope, regional general manager for the UK and Northern Europe for Tourism Australia, is to leave the tourist board at the end of June.

Cope has overseen the UK market for the last six years and said she would be leaving it in a strong place.

“All of our arrival figures are looking strong. The UK is currently tracking in line with capacity. It’s about 83% recovered compared to 2019 [pre-pandemic]. The demand is there but aviation capacity isn’t quite back to where it was,” she said.

Cope pointed out that Turkish Airlines had flown its inaugural flight to Melbourne yesterday (Monday), so was confident the situation was changing.

“Plus we have some big events coming up with the British and Irish Lions, the Rugby World Cup and the decade of green and gold leading up to the Olympics in 2032,” she said.

Cope is going to take six months off to go travelling in Europe before relocating back to Sydney to resume work.

She added: “I’ve been working for 35 years in the tourism industry and the longest holiday I’ve had has been three weeks, so I’m going to take some time off to travel, starting with the Coast2Coast trek here in the UK, and start again in a new role in the new year.”

Cope said Tourism Australia had started “a big search” for her replacement.