Australia woos more Indian tourists

Australia is emerging as an attractive destination for Indian tourists, luring more number of Indian travellers in recent years.

The growth in the number of visitors from India to Australia has nearly tripled compared with the growth in the number of visitors from other inbound markets, according to data available at the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

In 2006, more than 83,700 tourists from India visited Australia, registering a 23 per cent increase in the number over the last year.

There were 5.5 million visitor arrivals to Australia during calendar year 2006, an increase of one per cent over 2005. Considering this, the number of Indian arrivals to Australia is relatively small. However, a considerable increase in the number of Indians visiting the country was experienced in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Maggie White, regional manager for south east Asia and Gulf countries, Tourism Australia, said the increasing numbers indicated the significance of the Indian market and its potential for Australia's sustainable tourism.

"India is a strong and rapidly emerging market for Australian tourism. Tourism Australia, the tourism marketing organisation of the government of Australia, has also been using innovative marketing communications to attract target consumers," she said. With the opening of a dedicated office in India this year, Tourism Australia expects continued growth in the number of visitors from India this year, she added.

Tourism Australia's focus in India is to continue converting the strong preference to visit Australia into actual intention to visit. The strategy involves promoting a variety of unique Australian experiences to Indian travellers that serve not just as an invitation, but also as exciting reasons to visit.

Abhilasha Jain, manager for Tourism Australia in India said, "We will continue to work closely with our distribution network and joint marketing partners, including key tour operators and airlines, to achieve good results from this market. The marketing programmes of Tourism Australia are primarily aimed at driving destination visibility and evoking a sense of excitement amongst Indians to visit Australia."

Other strong inbound markets to Australia are China, Canada and South Africa. There is a year-on-year growth of 8% in the number of visitors from these countries.