This handout photo taken on January 11, 2020 and received on January 17 from environment group Greenpeace Australia-Pacific shows Rural Fire Service volunteer firefighters watching as the New South Wales"megafire" approaches the outskirts of the town of Tumbarumba in New South Wales.
Fears of smoke from the fires disrupting the Australian Open receded in Melbourne where the year's first Grand Slam starts on Monday, but the city and parts of the bushfire-ravaged Victoria were bracing for heavy rains. Damages to the tourism industry from the bushfire disaster have approached $688 million so far and may go above $3 billion by the end of the year, according to estimates from Australian tourism bodies.
In a joint statement released with Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham said the bushfires have dealt the biggest reputational blow to the Australian tourism industry that it has ever faced internationally.
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