"COVID has got people ringing and asking for advice non-stop," the manager of one company which organises foreign travel said.

"People are holding back because they are nervous," Jody Collenette of Travel Doctor - TMVC Canberra added.

"People are sitting back and waiting because requirements are changing so fast. The changes are as fluid as COVID is."

The confusion doesn't just extend to travel abroad.

Queensland opened its border this week and some Canberrans are heading there for the sun and sand - but they have to get a special pass, with a negative COVID-19 laboratory test no more than 72 hours before.

Some feel anxious about whether the right result will come in time for the flight.

Demand for flights from Canberra Airport has increased as the holidays approach but it's nowhere near what it was before the pandemic.

The number of passengers going through, at 6000 a day, was only a third of what it was in the same pre-Christmas period before the pandemic - but it was nearly double last week's figure.

"It's positive to see the amount of travel increase over the past week," airport boss Stephen Byron said, "but we are still only 35 per cent of our passenger numbers pre-COVID".

For foreign travel, regulations change so fast that Qantas has had to update its advice about 400 times, according to Jody Collenette who specialises in facilitating overseas travel for leisure and business in Canberra.

Cruises are still banned from Australia, with no permission until at least February, but some Australians have investigated whether they can fly to the United States to cruise the Caribbean from Florida.

"There's no restriction on where Australians can go to," Dr Jennifer Sisson of Travel Doctor - TMVC said.

Some doctors are advising people that they can travel within Australia this holiday period - but with care.

Dr David Brand of the Ainslie Family Practice emphasised the continuing need for frequent hand-washing and social distancing as well as full vaccination.

"I think people can go where they want to go but they should be sensible," he said.

He thought that the Omicron variant was "speeding" onwards and that meant precautions had to continue.

Canberra infectious diseases physician Dr Nick Coatsworth took some comfort from the small rise in the number of hospital cases in New South Wales compared with the big rise in the number of infections with the new variant.

"The answer is not increased restrictions, the answer is a booster blitz, which is exactly what we're going to do," Dr Coatsworth who is Director of Medical Services in Canberra said.

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