Sudipta Dev – Mumbai
New South Wales, the largest state in Australia, also has the largest Indian population. Mike Baird, premier, New South Wales, Australia was in India recently on a personal invitation of the Indian prime minister for the Vibrant Gujarat Summit. Baird has signed a new MoU with the chief minister of Gujarat, and met the tourism minsiter. “Tourism is one of the big opportuinities of our relationship,” said Baird, who also had a meeting with the chief minister of Maharashtra. He was a part of the 450 people delegation from Australia (the largest for Vibrant Gujarat Summit), that was led by the trade minister of Australia.
Talking about the need to improve airline connectivity between NSW and India, he said, “That is one of the things we are discussing with the chief ministers. Collectively we are trying to approach the airlines. Accessibility is one of the important aspects. The direct Air India flight has made a big difference. Jet Airways is one of the airlines we are talking to, and similarly Australian airlines,” mentioned Baird.
Tourism being one of the key focus areas, Baird acknowledged that it provided a great opportunity. “We are looking at doubling tourism in five years and want to bring people from Australia to this amazing country. We want to continue our success of attracting tourists from India. A lot of this can be attributed to the Jhappi Time campaign that encourages Indians to go and hug one’s loved ones in Australia. My expectation is that Jhappi Time will flourish,” he stated. Singapore Airlines is signing up for the first time for the Jhappi Time campaign. The next focus is the honeymoon segment. Destination NSW has set ambitious goals for 2020. Paramjit Bawa, country manager – India, Destination NSW, said, “We will not be able to achieve that without the support of the Indian travel trade. We value the support of our airline partners.”
The sneak peek world primiere of Bret Lee’s ‘Un-Indian’ was also held during the event.