Tourism Australia eyes multi-billion dollar Indian market

MELBOURNE: Buoyed by the rising number of Indian travellers to the country, Australia has decided to enhance its 10-year marketing plan to tap a 2.3 billion dollar Indian tourism market.

Indian travellers to Australia rose to nearly 8 per cent last year, contributing 804 million Australian dollars to its economy, Tourism Australia said.

The agency has decided to use a new research that would provide some really valuable learnings into the Indian consumer, their purchasing intentions and desire for experiencing travel, managing director Andrew McEvoy said.

"India is already Australia's tenth largest source market and has the potential to grow strongly in coming years if we get the marketing, product, distribution and aviation access right," he said.

McEvoy said insights from the research would support efforts to lure travellers from India where leisure spending has increased by more than 25 per cent since the launch of Tourism Australia's India 2020 Strategic Plan a year ago.

"India is one of the world's fastest growing outbound travel markets, with the World Tourism Organisation predicting 50 million outbound travellers by 2020," McEvoy said. He said the findings would inform the agency's own marketing efforts in India.

The research was based on a targeted sample of 2,054 Indian leisure travellers and included interviews with travel sellers in India.