'Indian tourist spend in Australia to top A$1 billion this year'

With a steady growth of tourists down under, Tourism Australia on Friday hinted that the total inbound spend by Indian visitors during their stay is likely to top A$1 billion during 2011, up from A$844 million last year.

"We have done a study and found that the spending is increasing as the number of days an Indian tourist or businessman stays in Australia is also going up. We see the traffic also going up by about 10 per cent at least during the year," Mr Nishant Kashikar, Manager, Tourism Australia in India, said.

Speaking to

Business Line at the Tourism Australia India Travel Mission 2011 being held at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC), Mr Kashikar said: "There has been focus on growing the number of visitors to Australia, be it for tourist visits, business or meetings and conventions. We have trained Indian travel and tourist partners to provide all facilities, including visa guidance and assistance."

"All these will translate into bigger numbers. The tourist traffic has grown by over 10 per cent last year and we expect to repeat this during the year. One of the issues for a traveller is the distance and the time to reach the destination. But given the advantages we offer, they would like to consider visiting Australia," he added.

Tourism Australia is engaged in talks with several airlines including Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Malaysian Airlines, Emirates and Air Asia to make it attractive with offers for Indian tourists. We believe these initiatives will help us attract more tourists. In fact, some of the tour operators and hospitality chains are keen to attract Indian high net worth individuals (HNIs) offering them customised packages, he said.