Sydney (TAN): The number of Indian tourists visiting Australia is expected to rise substantially in the coming years and according to Tourism Australia, the global tourist promotion arm of the Australian government, the number will reach 500,000 by 2020 and cross a million by 2025 from the 3.72 lakh during the year ended March 2019, The Hindu said.
India is currently the fastest-growing inbound market for Tourism Australia.
“In the last five years, there has been a 16% CAGR growth in Indian tourist inflows while the spending by them has gone up by 18% during the period,” the report quoted Nishant Kashikar, country manager, India and Gulf, Tourism Australia, as saying.
[ALSO READ: Air France to remove 210 million single-use plastic items by 2019 end]
Australia will host the T20 World Cup for both men and women in the next year which is expected to bring in additional 30,000-40,000 visitors in 2020.
Kashikar also said, “Our 2020 arrival goal for Indians was three lakh, but we had achieved this goal three years ahead of the target date in December 2017. That’s the kind of interest we see among Indians for Australian destinations.”
There has been a shift in travel trends and the traveller’s profile in India, as noted by Kashikar. “While we see the traffic to be dominated by the middle-aged affluent Indians, we are witnessing a shift where a lot of young Indians, and solo travellers are coming to Australia for a holiday,” he explained.
[ALSO READ:Costa Cruises aims at wellness and responsible tourism, introduces Nordic Walking tours]
Australia is also planning to expand its working holiday visa programme to cover around a dozen more countries, including India.
According to an ABC report in August, the Australian government is planning this move to solve the labour crisis in the country. Under this programme, visitors will be able to go on an extended holiday and take up short-term employment to fund their travels.
[ALSO READ: That Morocco goat-on-tree picture you saw was staged]
India currently holds the sixth position in the Australian tourism market after New Zealand, US, UK, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia. According to data provided by Tourism Australia, Indian visitors spent AUD 1.7 billion (USD 1.17 billion) on their Australian trips for the year ended March 2019, a 12% increase YoY. Friends/family and leisure segment accounted for 52% of these travels while the rest came for business, education and employment.
