ETW Staff– Mumbai
Australia witnessed the highest growth in Indian arrivals in a single month achieved during the past seven years for the month of May 2014, with a remarkable 39 per cent increase over previous year. There were 21,700 visitors from India during May 2014, bringing the total for the five months to May to 82,500, an increase of 19 per cent relative to the same period previous year. Arrivals for the year ended May’14 were 182,200; an increase of 15 per cent over the same period of the previous year.
Nishant Kashikar, country manager, India and Gulf, Tourism Australia, said, “We are extremely pleased with the results achieved during the peak summer holiday season and the growing popularity of Australia amongst Indian travellers. Tourism Australia is geared up to keep the momentum going and optimistic that the impending launch of our food and wine centric ‘Restaurant Australia’ campaign, and the mega sporting fervour that the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 will bring, will lead to further growth in visitor arrivals from India in the coming months.”
Increase in aviation capacity by the introduction of direct flights on the triangulated route of Delhi-Sydney-Melbourne by Air India, and partnerships with Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines have also presented a boost to arrivals from India.
Tourism Australia is looking to incorporate the food and wine experience much more strongly in its ‘There’s Nothing like Australia’ campaign and give it a dedicated food and wine focus. ‘Restaurant Australia’ will be launched in India in August and will take form of an integrated media campaign with appealing footage and imagery drawing the attention of potential travellers in the run-up to the year-end holiday season.
The ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, co-hosted by Australia in the months of February and March 2015 is another high-interest event that Tourism Australia will seek to leverage through impactful media partnerships, advocacy driven initiatives through influencer and media hosting programmes to create a sustained media presence for destination Australia. The ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 will be preceded by India’s tour of Australia from December 2014 providing strategic opportunities to promote travel to the destination amongst avid sports enthusiasts in India.
