The land of Oz beckons

Maggie White, general manager (South & Southeast Asia), Australian Tourist Commission (ATC) believes that Gujarat and Maharashtra are going to be the Commission's main focus areas in next two years as more and more people from the western region of India, are keen on making Australia their favourite travel destination.

White, based in Kuala Lumpur, was in Ahmedabad for the first time on Monday.

She shared ATC's plans in making Australia the most happening destination for Indians with Joydeep Ray

On growth in number of tourists and business travellers and students to Australia from India:

The ATC has witnessed a phenomenal increase in the number of tourists and students travelling to Australia from India during the last six years and it is bound to increase in next two years.

At the end of 1996, only 12,000 people had visited Australia from India. Of them, 4,000 were students. This number went up to 45,000 at the end of the last year, which is nearly 300 per cent growth.

We expect this number to go up to 50,000 at the end of 2004. Our target is to get 54,000 travellers including students from India alone at the end of 2005.

On targeting the business class and investors in Australia:

We have observed that among the 45,000 Indians who travelled to Australia last year, 50 per cent were tourists. Twenty per cent were business travellers including investors.

To woo the investors and the business class further, the Australian government has announced sops for pharmaceutical and automotive industries. There is a lot of scope for insurance companies from overseas.

I understand that Gujarat accounts for half of India's pharmaceutical industry and obviously we will look forward to getting pharma companies from this state to invest in Australia. We can also offer excellent R&D facilities and there are sops to be unveiled for biotech industry also.

On marketing strategies of the ATC to attract more tourists from India:

We do not believe in spending huge money on advertisements, rather we believe in proper services and briefing for the aspiring tourists and students.

We have recently introduced a concept, 'Aussie Specialists', who will be our marketing instruments in this country and we have already identified 153 such people who are across India.

By the end of this year, the number of Aussie Specialists will go up to 170 and we want to remain content with this number.

These people are provided training by our own personnel on handling tourists and students and they are also being taken to Australia on an all-expenses-paid trip to know the country more. To become an 'Aussie Specialist,' one will need to invest only $75. But he will have to undergo three tests conducted by the ATC.

We have also recently tied up with a public relations agency based in Mumbai, which is contracted to represent ATC in India.

On target areas in India:

Our main target is the western India, specially people in Mumbai and Gujarat as they travel a lot and do not hesitate to spend money for quality travel and tourism.

We have already identified 40 Aussie Specialists in Mumbai alone while five such agents have been identified in Ahmedabad. Delhi is also one of our focus area and we have recruited 35 agents there.

On alliance with the Singapore Airlines:

We have chosen Singapore Airlines recently for a marketing alliance and we have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Singapore Airlines in this regard.

SIA will market Australia as a tourist destination in the entire Europe and Asia.

Apart from that, Singapore is a mature market for our country with high repeat visitation "" up to 70 per cent and we need to give visitors in this market new reasons to visit Australia.

On SARS affecting the tourism industry:

The first few months of 2003 were really bad for us and we got hardly any tourist from India.

But now that fear is over and people have started booking their visits and we believe that by end of this year, we will report a rise in the number of visitors from India, though it may be very little.