The India outbound movement, especially to Down Under, has proven to be robust over the past few years. This resulted in a record number of participation from Australian suppliers at the recently held India Travel Mission (ITM) 2016 in Chennai. By Reema Lokesh
The Indian traveller is on the move and as per statistics, this number is only going to witness robust growth in the coming years. If one has to go by the reports from Tourism Australia (the destination welcomed over 241,700 Indians as of year ended June 2016), this prediction is not far from reality. The recently concluded Tourism Australia’s India Travel Mission (ITM) 2016, witnessed highest-ever participation from the Australian tourism industry. Due to India’s fast growth in recent years it has become one of the key source markets for Australia. The growing number of visitors from India has caught the attention of a number of Australian suppliers, specialists, airlines and more. They are keen to understand this market further, which would enable them to cater to its promising customer base. Due to this encouraging response, this year’s ITM, Tourism Australia’s flagship annual travel trade engagement initiative, registered a record number of Australian sellers, who connected with the Indian buyers to both strengthen their network and also to understand the latest trends and demands.
ITM 2016, held in Chennai, had a delegation of over 84 Australian suppliers, which included 20 new players, namely Scoot, Visit Canberra, Tourism Barossa, Australian Wine Tour Company, Featherdale Wildlife Park, Sand Dune Adventures, Fire Truck Tours, and Wildlife Coast Cruises, among others. Over the years, ITM has proven to be an effective networking platform for Indian and Australian trade partners to interact and strengthen business opportunities, and provides Australian products with an opportunity to gain insights on the latest travel trends in India and better understand consumer interests and preferences. This year marks the 14th edition of ITM and has observed the highest-ever participation, with over 104 Indian buyers who participated in the event.
Positive trend
A number of reasons can be attributed to the upswing in tourism traffic from India to Australia – from the recently extended electronic visa facility to around 83 agents across India, to the stable Australian dollar, to Tourism Australia’s marketing initiatives that has led to increasing inflow into the country. According to the Tourism Australia office in India, there has been a 19 per cent increase in tourism arrivals in the year 2015 vis-a-vis the previous year and a 38 per cent increase in terms of tourism spend.
Michael Newcombe, GM, south/ southeast Asia & Gulf countries, Tourism Australia, is pleased with the performance graph displayed by the India market. He feels the investment made in terms of creating awareness, through education programmes and campaigns has reaped rewards. Newcombe says, “We have been in touch with the trade and facilitated their demands. We intend to focus on the leisure market as the way forward. Aviation connections is our game changer, along with a host of developments that has worked in our favour.”
The India office under the leadership of Nishant Kashikar, country manager – India and Gulf, Tourism Australia, has worked closely with travel associates and partners like tour operators, travel agents, airlines and visa office to boost the tourism inflow into the region. Kashikar says, “We are seeing some encouraging results in terms of the tourism inflow into Australia from India. There are a number of factors that have led to the growth especially in recent times. From the ICC World Cup Cricket initiative, to Air India’s direct services to primary cities of Australia, to digital marketing initiatives and education sessions with key partners in our business, has worked well in our favour. Another factor is the student traffic from India to Australia. As per statistics, there are around 53,000 Indian students in the region, which further gives impetus to the VFR traffic.”
Kashikar mentioned, “Over the last few years, ITM has proven to be a great learning tool for us to grow and strengthen our travel trade outreach in the country. Tourism Australia is honoured to provide an opportunity to the Australian supplier delegation to interact and establish commercial ties with Indian trade. The new Australian products participating at the ITM this year signifies the growing importance of India as a key market for Australia.”
Buyer-supplier speak
Buyers from across India were part of the mission and most felt the mission was worth their while. These missions help to reconnect with the suppliers. Maitreyee Vakharia of Pathfinders Holidays in Ahmedabad, said that she was impressed with the event and though she knew a large number of sellers, she was happy to meet new players. Most buyers were glad to meet new suppliers and the 20 new products that were announced for the Indian market.
For Nayaz Noor of Safir Tours, Australia-based DMC and tourism specialist, this event proves to be a perfect ground to meet with his Indian trade partners. He pointed out that Australia has so much more to offer and there is a lot that the Indian travellers can still discover. Sudhir Warrier of Sydney Showboats, has worked with and watched the Indian market rather closely. He agreed that the market has matured with time but there is so much more that can be achieved. “Indians enjoy their cruise after dusk. The market is evolving and costumers are open to trying out unique dining experiences,” he said. Members of the Gold Coast Tourism Alliance are looking at connecting actively with Indian trade partners. They want to showcase their products and offer Gold Coast with a series of new attractions to experiences beyond the beach activities. Abhishek from Turtle Down Under is keen to connect with the travel trade. The team also has an office in Kolkata to cater to the India market.
Tourism Australia is focused on achieving its India 2020 strategic goals. Tourism Australia also used this platform to promote the destination through its virtual reality assets, thus showcasing its latest global campaign on Aquatic and Coastal to the Indian trade attending ITM 2016. Australia has witnessed a continued growth trajectory in tourist arrivals from India. For the year ended June 2016, Indian visitation to Australia increased by 9.4 per cent over the previous year. For the year ended March 2016, Indian visitors contributed over A$ 1.14 billion (approximately Rs 5,500 crores) to the Australian economy, an increase of 19 per cent over 2014/15 and spent a total of 14 million visitor nights in Australia, an increase of 18 per cent over similar period during the previous year.
New players at ITM 2016
- Australian Wine Tour Company
- Beautiful Tours Australia
- CaPTA Group
- Featherdale Wildlife Park
- Fire Truck Tours
- Grand Hyatt Melbourne
- Great Aussie Travel & Tour
- Jet Boat Extreme
- Livn Holidays GDS
- Phillip Island
- Phillip Island Apartments
- Sailway Port Douglas
- Sand Dune Adventures
- Scoot
- Southern Cross 4 WD Tours
- Tourism Barossa
- Tourism Kangaroo Island
- Turtle Down Under
- Visit Canberra
- Whales in Paradise
- Wildlife Coast Cruises
- Wildlife Tropical North Queensland.