Australia eyes 2.35 lakh tourists from India this fiscal

Australia, which considers India as the fastest growing source market, is expecting 2.35 lakh tourists from the sub-continent to visit the country this financial year.
"India, which has become number eight this year from 11 in 2014, presents a huge potential for Australia as a source market. In the first quarter of 2015, we witnessed an all time high (42 per cent growth) compared to the same period of 2014, mainly due to the Cricket World Cup.
"We expect to witness overall 15-18 per cent growth in Indian tourists visiting Australia during this financial year to 2.34 lakh," Tourism Australia, India and Gulf, Country Manager Nishant Kashikar told PTI here.

About 2.15 lakh Indians visited the continent nation in FY14, he added.
In order to increase the tourist inflow from India, Tourism Australia undertook several initiatives in during 2014, including the launch of the Restaurant Australia campaign.
"It is very encouraging to see the number of visitor arrivals from India to Australia reaching an all-time high. Australia is an all-year round destination and has a diverse range of some of the world's best tourism experiences. This year also we are planning to continue with our campaign and work with our distribution partners," Kashikar added.

He said, besides food and wine Tourism Australia is also planning to promote sports, romance and honeymoon, aquatic and coastal campaign and aboriginal culture to attract tourists from India.

Tourism Australia also has been in talks with airline partners to increase direct connectivity between both the countries.
"We are in talks with with our airline partners including Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines and Quanta for direct connectivity. This will help in increase in Indian tourist traffic to Australia. We expect some decision in this regard in next 12-18 months. However, it is a commercial decision," Kashikar said.
When asked which Indian cities contribute mainly to the tourist inflow to Australia, he said, about 67 per cent people who visit Australia are from Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

"Going forward, we are planning to focus our promotions of Australia being an all year destination in these six states," he added.