Tourism Australia Media Roundtable with Mr.Nishant Kashikar(Country Manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia).!

Chennai 14 April 2022 Tourism Australia Media Roundtable with Mr.Nishant Kashikar(Country Manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia).!

Tourism Australia is delighted to be welcoming back travellers from Tamil Nadu, with borders now open for quarantine-free travel, for fully vaccinated visa holders. Australia has progressively been reopening its borders to fully vaccinated travellers, first allowing parents, then students and skilled visa holders, and now all visitors from 21st February 2022.

Pre-Covid, India was Australia’s fastest growing inbound tourism market for three years. In 2019, Australia welcomed almost 400,000 visitors from India and was the sixth most valuable market for spend, contributing over A$ 1.8 billion. Tamil Nadu ranked number four for spend and arrivals, accounting for 29,000 visitors (8% share) and contributed A$ 140 Mn (Rs 770 crore).

Tourism Australia’s recent Consumer Demand Project research suggests that 1.8 Mn (or 82%) out of 2.2 Mn High Value Travellers from India intend to visit Australia over the next two years. This demand is well complemented by the boost to direct aviation access between India and Australia with the commencement of direct flights by Qantas and Air India in recent times. To further facilitate this demand, Qantas recently announced its first direct route between Australia and southern India, with non-stop flights between Sydney and Bangalore scheduled to commence from 14th September 2022 onwards. This is in addition to a codeshare agreement with IndiGo, which will expand Qantas’ reach across India.

To encourage holiday visitors from India, the Department of Home Affairs launched the Visa Application Charge (VAC) waiver initiative, for those tourists whose visa to Australia has either expired or will expire between 20th March 2020 and 30th June 2022.

Visa applications can be lodged online as per a time and location best suited for the applicant and can easily be facilitated through electronic payment with the ability to check the status of the application online. An online application can also be completed by a third party such as a travel agent, with the applicant’s permission.

Tourism Australia will also be collaborating with travel partners including MakeMyTrip, Thomas Cook, SOTC, Kesari Tours, Kulin Kumar Holidays, Travel Tours, Veena World and airline partners including Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Air India and Qantas amongst others to encourage early bookings to Australia and influence Indian travellers to take an Australian holiday for the summer travel period. This is in addition to collaborations with local Premier Aussie Specialists, including Avocet, Baywatch, Footprint Holidays, Peekay, Pegasus and PickYourTrail among others.

Australia will also play host to the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup from 22nd October – 13th November this year, which presents a fantastic opportunity for Indian cricket loving tourists and business travellers to visit and enjoy an experience of the game and beyond.