‘Aim to hit 1 mn mark this decade’

Tourism Australia’s ambitious goal of hitting the one million arrival mark from India could just as well be achieved before deadline, as more and more agents sell Australia and its Signature Experiences that immerse the traveller and lure them to stay back longer.

Hazel Jain

India is now number four in terms of visitor arrivals for Australia for year ending March ’23 as compared to number seven pre-COVID, says

Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India and Gulf, Tourism Australia. Since the opening of Australian borders to Indian visitors, which was April 2022, arrivals for year ended March ‘23 were at 98 per cent of pre-Covid levels. “India is the fastest growing market for Tourism Australia, and possibly the first market to recover to pre- COVID levels. We want to achieve our 2019 numbers, which was 4,00,000, by June 2023. And then continue our journey to achieve a much higher goal of touching a million visitors by the end of this decade,” he adds.

Sharing some trends that he sees from the India market, Kashikar adds, “Indians are also staying longer, travelling beyond the key gateway cities, and contributing to the Australian economy in a much more significant manner. At least a couple of weeks or longer on a holiday. The VFR traffic obviously stays longer. We are confident that this campaign will offer a compelling reason for travellers to plan early and book their next holiday to Australia well in advance.”

He was referring to the trade program that Tourism Australia has developed called Signature Experiences of Australia. It packages and promotes Australia’s tourism experiences within a variety of niche areas and special interest categories. Karen Fitzgerald, General Manager, Experiences, Tourism Australia, says, “It is a program for the trade, and we have an experiences portal that the trade can get on and find all the 700 experiences by theme. The beauty of Signature Experiences for the luxury travel advisor is that it’s a great place to start. The most popular would be undoubtedly the Luxury Lodges of Australia. That would absolutely be number one. Behind that would be Wildlife and Wine experiences. Cultural attractions, particularly around our sporting venues, are also very popular. Soft adventure is also really appealing for Indian visitors.” She adds, “The luxury traveller from India is looking to experience Australia through the eyes of the local people. A lot of Indians are adventurous, so there is a lot of self-drive.”