TravTalk India Online Magazine
While long term goal for Tourism Australia is to achieve a million visitors from India, the goal for next 12-18 months is to achieve its pre-COVID visits of 4 lakh visitors, who would contribute 1.8 bn dollars in spends. For this, they are targeting to tap not just corporates, but also families, honeymooners and young explorers.
Hazel Jain
Tourism Australia is currently promoting two marquee events that Australia will host in 2022-2023. This includes the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 and the Australian Open 2023. These two events, says Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India and Gulf, Tourism Australia, are going to help Australia come back strongly and bounce back to pre-COVID-19 levels of arrivals from India.
“We are specially expecting the India-Pakistan match on October 23, 2022 at MCG and then watch the finals on November 13, 2022. These two events are really important for us and we are working together with DreamSetGo that has launched official travel packages for these two events for sport lovers in Indian,” he says. Events such as these, he adds, play an important role for destinations because it provides them with a PR opportunity. “Every time any Indian team has travelled to Australia, we see visits not just for the event, but also the event helps us to bring a strong awareness for the destination. We use it as a PR opportunity by taking a lot of fans and influencers to experience the destination who, in turn, entice their followers to visit the destination. So, we see a big halo effect created by such events,” Kashikar adds.
‘Money can’t buy’ itineraries
Kashikar shares that his team has worked with DreamSetGo to create some ‘money can’t buy’ moments. DreamSetGo’s packages will include official match tickets, hotel accommodation, intercity transfers, guided tours, access to bespoke events, match-day programmes and other exclusive experiences. These include personal interactions with Indian or Australian sports persons, centre court seating for tennis fans, an exclusive meal on a private yacht owned by some of the cricketing legends, behind the scenes activities with some of the Australian Masterchefs.
Incentives, but also leisure
Kashikar says, “To our surprise the MICE segment has bounced back very strongly whether it is the tech sector or pharma or fintech – they have all done well and are now travelling to Australia for incentives. Travelling to Australia has become very easy; we have limited restrictions. We have also seen tripling of aviation capacity between the two countries. So we are looking at not just corporates, but families, honeymooners and young explorers are our target audience right now.”
Kashikar says, “While our long-term goal for the Indian market is to achieve a million visitors out of the Indian market, the goal for the next 12-18 months will be to achieve our pre-COVID-19 visits of 4,00,000 visitors. who would contribute 1.8 billion dollars in spends.”
Monish Shah, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer, DreamSetGo, said, “India’s appetite for cricket is a well-known fact, but the growing interest for other sports, especially tennis, is encouraging for the sports ecosystem. Australia, on the other hand, has a deep-rooted sporting culture. Adding that with everything else the country has to offer for tourists like superior sports infrastructure, smart cities, food culture, and celebrated sporting legends. The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 and Australian Open 2023 are going to be unforgettable events and we are excited to create extraordinary experiences for sports fans.”
