Indians visiting South Australia spent over AU$ 28million during the year ending September 2016, as revealed in the latest International Visitor Survey results released by the Tourism Research Australia. This is a 109 per cent increase over last year’s figure which stood at AU$ 13 million. South Australia has witnessed a steady rise in expenditure by Indians over the last few years. This is largely attributed to a growing interest in the state, leading to an increase in the number of nights spent by Indians, which saw an 18 per cent rise over the last year.
Indian tourists are among the top five spenders from Asia, following China, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, while holidaying in South Australia. According to recent travel reports, Indians are increasing their travel budgets year-on-year and are now looking for new destinations and experiences.
Commenting on the visitor statistics, Dana Urmonas, regional director – Southeast Asia and India, South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC), said, “We are increasingly seeing Indians with a higher capacity to spend visiting Adelaide and the surrounds. Over the last year we have made significant progress through our consumer and trade marketing in getting Adelaide onto the itinerary of Indians visiting Australia. We are positive we will see many more Indians coming on holiday to South Australia.”
Currently, India is the ninth largest source market for Australia as a whole among the top 15 source markets for South Australia. The last year saw 11,000 Indian visitors to South Australia. According to the Tourism Forecasting Committee, the number of arrivals to Australia is expected to see an average annual financial year growth rate of 6.4 per cent until FY2021-22. SATC aims to capitalise on this and increase the number of Indian visitors to South Australia by 10 per cent in 2017.
In the last year, SATC rolled out a number of initiatives in order to attract more Indian tourists. SATC’s primary target markets include Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai and the core segments include families, honeymooners and independent leisure travellers in the age group of 25-55.
