In these times of social media, travelling to Australia has emerged as a more inviting option for outbound Bengal tourists, who are looking for adventure and the fascination of self-drives, romantic holidays, culinary trails, wildlife and theme parks. In its latest initiative to pull a large number of Bengal tourists, Tourism Australia is working with its airline partners to roll out special low-cost airfares for flyers travelling to Australia in the summer months of April and May.

Nishant Kashikar, country manager, India and Gulf, Tourism Australia informed, “We are working with eight airline players like Air India, Scoot Airlines, Air Asia, Singapore Airlines, Silk Air, Malaysian Airlines, Thai Airways and Cathay Pacific. We intend to offer airfares to holidaymakers lower than the prevailing ones. In fact, we have an agreement with Air India and Malaysian Airlines to come up with special offers for Indian flyers jetting away to Australia.”

There has been a surge in the flow of outbound tourists from Bengal to Australia in recent times. Kashikar said, “Nearly 7,100 travellers from Bengal touched down in Australia contributing as much as Rs 145 crore to the economy of the country with an average spending of about Rs 2.06 lakh per person.  There has been around 29 per cent growth in Bengal tourist arrivals to Australia last year. We are targeting to have around 10,000 tourists from these parts in the current period. We are expecting around 2, 75,000 Indian travellers in Australia this year.”

Tourism Australia has bolstered its marketing campaign that has paved the way to achieve a double digit growth in Indian tourist footfall. Kashikar further said, “We have signed an agreement with the department of immigration, Australia and leading global travel companies like Thomas Cook and, Cox and Kings Limited for facilitation of trans-visa. We have our online training session called Aussie Specialist Programme and we have imparted training to travel groups in Bengal. There are around 350 Aussie specialists in Bengal now.”

The tourist market in Bengal is rapidly growing and figures as a vital source market for Australia. Kashikar added, “Next to New Delhi and Mumbai, West Bengal ranks in the third position in terms of number of affluent households in the country. With rising affluent households and the propensity of well-to-do families to travel, the tourism market is gaining momentum. We are working closely with 12 travel groups from Bengal like Club 7 Holidays, Gainwell Holidays, Pristine Travel and Vensimal World Travel Agents Private Limited to entice travellers from the state. Bengal occupies the eighth position in terms of Indian tourist arrivals to Australia.”    

Maharashtra and New Delhi contribute the most number of Indian tourists to Australia. “We are promoting Australia as a destination for special occasions for honeymoon couples and leisure tourists. It is also a favourite with the corporate sector and companies like Honda, Asian Paints and Suzuki are organising trips for their employees to Australia this year,” further added Kashikar.

Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Cairns and Adelaide are the chief attractions for Bengal tourists. “India will soon emerge among the five leading tourist source markets for Australia,” signed off Kashikar.