Australia eyes 10 per cent rise to 2 lakh Indian visitors this fiscal

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the cricket World Cup next year, Australia is wooing Indian tourists, eyeing up to 10 per cent rise in their arrivals to 2 lakh in the current financial year to that country.

Tourism Australia is promoting the country as a culinary destination as it targets to tap both leisure and business travellers from India.

"We are looking for 8 to 10 per cent rise in Indian visitors to Australia. Our aim is to touch 2 lakh visitors by the end of this financial year," Tourism Australia Country Manager India & Gulf Nishant Kashikar said.

During the July 2013-June 2014 period, around 1,85,000 visitors from India had visited Australia, he added.

"We see two key opportunities to promote Australia, one is launch of new campaign called 'Restaurant Australia' that aims to position the country as culinary capital of the world and the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015," Kashikar said.

Moreover, the Indian cricket team is visiting Australia to play test match series in December 2014 followed by triangular series in January 2015, he added.

On what constitutes the largest segment for the Indian travellers visiting Australia, Kashikar said: "Leisure is the largest segment. Close to two third of all visitors from here travel for leisure, for visiting friends and relatives and for holidays."

The next are visitors for business, followed by those who go to Australia for short term education and other purposes.

As per Tourism Australia, Indian travellers are also important because of their average length of stay and average expenditure.

"On an average, the duration of stay for an Indian visitor is 57 days and average expenditure is close to AUD 4,500 per person," Kashikar said.

India is one of the top 10 markets for Australia and there has been very strong growth in first six months of this year, he added.

Tourism Australia is the Australian Government agency responsible for promoting the country as a destination for business and leisure travel.