Oz blaze in Mumbai, Delhi
Delegates from the two states of Australia were present in all their glory during the joint roadshow that show an overwhelming response from the trade in these two cities.
Tourism and Events Queensland, along with Tourism Victoria, recently showcased its products to the Indian travel trade in Mumbai and New Delhi in a bid to increase numbers as well as length of stay and expenditure by Indian tourists. While Queensland was present with 17 suppliers, Tourism Victoria was leading a delegation of 14 suppliers. The two states had chosen to travel to Mumbai and New Delhi after a successful India Trade Mission 2016 in Chennai recently.
Lim Mui Khim, International Director (South & South East Asia), Tourism and Events Queensland, said, “We had 90 appointments in Chennai and that tells us how important India is as a market. It has good length of stay with an average of nine nights that includes Cairns, Whitsunday Islands and Gold Coast.” She expects numbers to increase with the fourth Singapore-Cairns service that SilkAir will launch from November 23 for the peak season. It will take off from Singapore at 8.30 am so that they can meet the Indian connections.
“In the last 12 months, we have seen arrivals in Cairns jump over 40 per cent. For the rest of Queensland it has shown double-digit increase. The main cities remain Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru with Chennai as a potential market,” Khim added.
ITM Chennai was also fruitful for Victoria with zero free appointment throughout the three days. Celia Ho, Regional Manager (South and South East Asia), Tourism Victoria, was present along with some new products like Yarra Valley and Philip Island. She said, “We saw 103,000 visitors from India during FY March 2016 which represents an increase of 9.5 per cent. We started at ITM with five operators and today we are at 14. Due to our strong VFR market, our number of nights has increased with an average length of 18 nights. In fact, about 70 per cent of 103,000 belong to the leisure segment, which breaks into pure holiday and VFR. Of this 70 per cent, 40 per cent are pure holiday-makers and their average stay is about four to six nights.”