ETW Staff – Mumbai
Tourism Australia recently organised the 13th edition of its trade engagement initiative, India Travel Mission (ITM) 2015 from August 27-30, 2015 at Bengaluru. At this edition, ITM received response from over 90 Indian travel companies spread across its key markets. The three day event saw participation from over 50 Australian products and experiences. Participants at ITM included representation from hotels, attractions, Inbound Tour Operators, state and regional tourism boards, airlines, among others.
Encouraged by the growing India market and providing new itinerary options to the Indian travel trade, a varied set of Australian tourism products made their debut in the country through the event this year. Representatives of Mt Buller Alpine Snow Resort, Oz Jet Boating Sydney, Sealink and Captain Cook Cruises, Skydive Australia, Sunlover Reef Cruises, Taronga Zoo, Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park, among others were first time participants.
Michael Newcombe, regional general manager, S/SEA and Gulf, Tourism Australia, said, “We would like to thank our Indian travel partners for their overwhelming support in yet another successful edition of ITM. Events such as this augment our efforts in educating the trade about Australia’s diverse tourism offerings and to aid them in promoting it as a must visit leisure destination among their customers. We are optimistic about India’s continued sustained growth as one of Australia’s top inbound markets.”
Nishant Kashikar, country manager, India and Gulf, Tourism Australia, said, “Over the years, ITM has proved to be a great platform for us to fortify our travel trade engagement in the country. With a record increase in tourist arrivals from India, Tourism Australia aims to further build on strong trade relationships and training programmes for the trade fraternity. We have recently launched our integrated brand campaign with key distribution partners across media mix to reinforce top-of-mind recall as a preferred destination during the booking period for the upcoming holiday seasons.”
Australia has witnessed a continued growth trajectory in tourist arrivals from India. As per the latest statistics for the year ended June 2015, 220,000 Indian travellers visited Australia which is an increase of 19 per cent for the same period from the previous year. For the six months to June, Australia received 122,900 visitors from India, a 24 per cent increase relative to the same period of the previous year. India is currently Australia’s eighth largest inbound tourism market.