The 16th edition of Tourism Australia’s premier event for promoting the country’s best tourism attractions to the Indian travel industry -India Travel Mission 2018 (ITM2018) was hosted in Jaipur. ITM 2018 brought together 75 Australian tourism businesses to meet with 87 travel retailers from India in over 6,500 business appointments over three days. The event witnessed participation from 14 first time seller participants and 20 buyer companies.
India Travel Mission enables Australian tourism product suppliers such as hotels, airlines, state and regional tourism boards and attractions to secure future business to further grow tourism opportunity for Australia in India. The spotlight during ITM 2018 was on Signature Experiences –a collection which offers diverse range of travel options including Australian Wildlife Collection, Great Golf Courses of Australia, Great Walks of Australia, Luxury Lodges of Australia and the Ultimate Winery Experiences of Australia.
Brent Anderson, Regional General Manager, South & South East Asia, Tourism Australia said, “India is a significant market for Australia and has been seeing a very encouraging growth trend. The introduction of Signature Experiences, the participation of new products showcasing at ITM this year and commitment of tourism suppliers who have been investing in India over the past decade is a cohesive effort to bring top selection of Australian tourism experiences to Indian High Value Travellers (HVTs). We are grateful to have received the unstinted support of the Indian and Australian tourism industry to make ITM 2018 a success.”
Commenting on the India Travel Mission 2018, Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India & Gulf, Tourism Australia said, “ITM 2018 has the largest ever delegation of Australian tourism suppliers and that speaks volumes of the potential of India as a key inbound market for Australia. Our focus for the year is to sustain the growth in arrivals and drive yield through our strategic trade and consumer initiatives. After achieving the 2020 goal of 300,000 visitors, three years ahead of the target date, our ambitions are fueled to go bigger and achieve higher milestones”.
In addition to ITM, the distribution strategy of Tourism Australia includes an enriched trade engagement program. One of the pioneers of the online destination training initiative – The Aussie Specialist Program, Tourism Australia has recruited over 5,700 travel agents across India. Tourism Australia has embraced technology for their trade outreach, while the certified Aussie Specialists have special access to a resourceful online toolkit to sell Australian holidays, trade partners are regularly engaged through webinars and e-newsletters. Tourism Australia has also been working closely with Key Distribution Partners to reward top performing agents and provides opportunities for select frontline staff and product teams to have a first- hand experience of Australia through their global trade events like Corroboree and the Australian Tourism Exchange.
India is currently Australia’s fastest growing inbound tourism market recording a double-digit growth in arrival and spend for the fourth consecutive year. Arrivals from India to Australia grew by 19.6 per cent for the year ended June 2018 with an influx of 335,100 visitors, compared to same period last year, making India the 8th largest inbound market for Australia.
