 "Gujaratis prefer Australia as holiday destination")
Gujarat is now one of the key source markets for tourism in Australia, as arrivals from Gujarat into the southern continent grew 118% in the past three years, coupled with expenditure rise of about 53% during the same time.
For the year ended December 2015,13,800 tourists from Gujarat visited Australia. These tourists spent Australian $ 51 million (over Rs 245 crore) on their Australian holidays. As per the tourism statistics gathered over the last three years, the state of Gujarat has recorded a staggering increase of 118% in tourist inflow to Australia, and a 53% increase in spend.
Nishant Kashikar, country manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia, said, “Due to their penchant for travel, the Gujarati community have always remained trendsetters in international tourism. For Tourism Australia, Gujarat is a key market in India, being a key to have delivered a tremendous growth of over 100% in arrivals over the last three years."
What's more Gujarati tourists tend to stay longer, and as a result spend more during their holidays in Australia.
Kashikar went on to add, "We have observed that Gujarati tourists tend to stay longer and spend more during their holiday in Australia.They usually opt for a pre-packaged itinerary, including as many
experiences and activities as possible on their Australia sojourn."
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Gujarat as emerged as one of the fastest growing markets in India, Tourism Australia said.
Australia has witnessed a continued growth trajectory in tourist arrivals from India. As per the year ended December 2015, around 233,100 Indian travellers visited Australia, which is an increase of 19 per
cent over the previous year. For the year 2015, Indian visitors contributed over Australian $ 1.1 billion (around Rs 5,500 crores) to the Australian economy; an increase of 38% over 2014.
India has also improved its ranking to become the 8th largest market for arrival and 10th largest market for spend in Australia. Indians spent a total of 14 million visitor nights in Australia during 2015; an increase of 38 percent over 2014.
India is one of the fastest growing outbound tourism markets, and therefore, a key focus market for Tourism Australia. To support the distribution network, Tourism Australia runs the online training program ‘Aussie Specialist Program’ for travel agents. For the year ended December 2015, the platform has over 500 agents from Gujarat registered.