Tourism Australia reclaiming the Indian tourism market

Following the border reopening, Tourism Australia has experienced a marked upswing in Indian visitations. The initial return, largely steered by the Visiting Friends and Relatives VFR) segment, evolves into a gradual recovery across the holiday and MICE segments. Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India and Gulf, Tourism Australia, shares more insights into how they navigated 2023 and the organisation's performance in the Indian market.

- Prashant Nayak

India has consistently been the fastest-growing source market for Australia, which is evidence enough to showcase the increasing travel appetite for international destinations amongst the holiday segments. India is presently the fifth largest source market for Australia in terms of visitor arrivals, a jump from the seventh largest source market preCOVID in 2019. For the year ended September 2023, Indian visitors to Australia were 386,000, representing a 100 per cent recovery to pre-COVID levels. Total trip spends of Indian tourists for the year ending June 2023 reached A$ 2.2 billion (approximately Rs 12,000 crore), showing a significant increase of 24 per cent compared to the year ending June 2019. As of September 2023, holiday and the VFR segment contributed to 14 per cent and 60 per cent of total visitation, respectively, whereas business, employment, and education contributed to 9, 7, and 6 per cent respectively.

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