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India is turning as one of the most preferred source markets for Australian Tourism as India beats China in terms of growth rate. Due to greater awareness amongst the upper-middle-class Indian population has helped in fueling the number of travellers from India to Australia.

In a recently organised Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE) 2018, Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India and Gulf, Tourism Australia said, “Australia Tourism’s 2020 goal of 300,000 arrivals from India has been achieved in 2017. In fact, Australia witnessed 302,200 Indian arrivals in 2017.”

ATE is Australia’s largest annual event for building tourism opportunities and relationships. ATE 2018 ran from April 15 to 19 in Adelaide and was organised by Tourism Australia in partnership with the South Australian Tourism Commission.

John O’ Sullivan, Chief Executive, Tourism Australia, described India as a ‘rising star market’, and attributed the growth to the Cricket World Cup, which was held in Australia in 2015. O’Sullivan said, “We’ve got a strong cultural connection with India as we are both former British colonies, and cricket is our game. The Indian Cricket team was in Australia for almost six months and that was a real driver for tourism.”

In 2017, India was eighth largest source market for Australia in terms of tourists arrivals, the seventh largest market for visitor spend, and the market with the highest growth rate. In 2017, Indian visitors spent 15.7 million nights in Australia, an increase of 7% over 2016. The average length of stay for the Indian visitor was 55 nights, with a 49% repeat visitation. And the average spend by the Indian traveller was INR 2,53,200.

O’Sullivan also stated that cricket is one of driving force for Indians visiting Australia apart from those who visit their friends and families.

He also confirmed the Tourism Australia is working on cricket trail package that consisted of tours of various cricketing grounds and museums dedicated to cricket and cricketers had been put together.

Source: travelnewsdigest.in