Outbound to Australia: Unfazed by ` slide
For the first three months of 2013, there has been a 24 per cent increase in leisure arrivals from India. Previously, the visitor arrivals to Australia from India grew by 7.5 per cent in 2012, reaching 159,400 for the year.
Indians
have become so much inclined to spend on an overseas experience that Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager India, Tourism Australia believes that even the depreciation in value of Indian rupee will not be a deterrent to growth of outbound from India to Australia.
“Depreciation of the rupee could have a shortterm sentimental effect on the outlook of Indian travellers, however, leisure travel has become an essential part of the urban Indian lifestyle and the demand for travel is likely to continue growing,” said Kashikar.
“We continue to see a strong demand for holidays to Australia from India.
For the first three months of 2013, there has been a 24 per cent increase in leisure arrivals from India,” he added.
According to him, the currency fluctuations are an expected feature in business, and can result in marginal changes in operational budgets. In fact, Tourism Australia had doubled its marketing spend during the first year of the India 2020 Strategic plan, launched by Martin Ferguson, Minister for Tourism at the Australian Tourism Exchange in Perth during June 2012.
“As part of our activities towards achieving the 2020 plan, we will continue to build on our current global brand campaign; There’s nothing like Australia with a focus on showcasing ‘Best of Australia’ destinations and experiences through our consumer focussed activities. As part of our promotion activities, we will be looking at integrated campaign activities with pres- ence across traditional and new media platforms. We will continue with consumer engagement activities like the recently initiated the ‘Who deserves a break in Oz’ contest, in association with LinkedIn, world’s largest professional social media network,” said Kashikar.
“Our efforts will also be directed towards fostering aviation partnerships, where airlines will be encouraged to advertise their tactical fares to Australia and we will also have cooperative campaigns with our key distribution partners and online travel agencies. Tourism Australia has worked with industry and its State and Territory Tourism Organisations (STOs) to introduce new products into the India market, including self-drive and luxury experiences, as well as new destinations such as Tasmania, South Australia and Uluru,” he added.