Australia focuses on Indians ahead of ICC T20 World Cup

Australia will be hosting both the men’s as well as the women’s cricket T20 World Cup in 2020.

While the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 will be held between October 18 to November 15, ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 will take place in Australia between February 21 to March 8.

Encouraged by the increase in the number of tourists from India, Tourism Australia plans to step up promotion further to woo more Indians to travel to Australia.

Tourism Australia is the global tourist promotion department of the Australian Government

Tourism Australia expects that Indian visitors to Australia will reach 5 lakhs by 2020, and 10 lakhs by 2025. Interestingly, the agency expects around 40,000 more Indians to turn up in Australia for the ICC T20 World Cup, to be held in Australia in 2020.

Registering an impressive double-digit growth for 5 consecutive years, India is perceived by Tourism Australia to be the fastest growing inbound market.

In the month of May 2019 alone, as many as 40,600 individuals from India visited Australia. Recording a 6.6% increase from the number of visitors a year ago, this is the highest ever number of visitors in any given month from India to Australia.

In a bid to encourage more overseas visitors, Australia has recently made changes to its online visa processing system, making it much simpler than it was before. Moreover, the requirement for biometrics and personal visits has also been down away with.

When it comes to Indians visiting Australia, the greatest number of visitors have been seen to be from Maharashtra. Delhi and Karnataka follow Maharashtra in sending most number of tourists to Australia.

Taking note of the fact that Kerala is one of the fastest growing markets in India, sending a significant number of visitors to Australia in any given year, Tourism Australia recently held its flagship trade event in Kochi.

Previously termed Australia Marketplace India, the trade event was subsequently renamed India Travel Mission (ITM). Held in Kochi, Kerala, from August 8 to 12, the program involved pre-scheduled meetings between buyers and sellers. The aim of the event was to provide a platform for representatives from Australian tourism industry to connect with qualified tour operators and travel agencies based in India.

As many as 77 Australian tourism business showcases their products to 90+ travel companies from India.

As per Nishant Kashikar, Tourism Australia’s country manager for India & Gulf, Tourism Australia's 2020 arrival goal for Indians was set at three lakhs, but the same has been achieved 3 years before the target date, that is, in December 2017 itself.

As per Simon Birmingham, the Tourism Minister of Australia, there is a need for increasing direct flights from India to Australia to address the growing demand from the Indian tourism industry.

Speaking at the World Routes 2019 in Adelaide on September 22, Simon Birmingham has said that currently 90% of Indian tourists have to travel through other ports for travelling to Australia. The Minister urged the airlines to consider this as an opportunity for securing “greater direct access between Australia and India”.

As of now, Air India is the only airline that has direct flights to Australia. Air India has 8 flights to New Delhi from Sydney and Melbourne.

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