Targeting one million arrivals from India by 2030, says Tourism Australia

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While Australia’s Zero-COVID policy saw tourism hit a trough through most of 2020 and 2021, Indian tourist arrivals numbered 400,000 as of February 2020, just prior to the onset of the pandemic. The average annual spend from Indian visitors totalled to $1.8 billion.

"Our first internal goal is to achieve pre-COVID levels in the first full year of operations," said Nishant, "So, from March 2022 to February 2023, especially with the ICC T-20 World Cup being hosted by Australia and assuming there are no further COVID waves, we should go back to 400,000 visitors from India."

However, a major and seemingly significant variable in these projections, COVID outbreaks aside, is the complete restoration of air routes.

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Australia's national carrier Qantas recently announced an increase in its outbound flights from India to Australia, including four flights per week on the new direct route from Bengaluru to Sydney, while Air India has also followed suit. However, the likes of Singapore Airlines which is a major connecting airline is still operating at 50 percent capacity between both countries.

"While visa numbers state that we are back to where we were before COVID, the fact remains that unless and until we get aviation routes back to where they were in early 2020, we may not see the numbers that we saw before COVID," Nishant added.

However, the Australian Government is doing its bid to promote tourism between both countries at various levels, including announcing select visa application-fee waivers and fast-tracking applications from the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) segment.

The country is hoping to tap into inbound Indian tourists with links to 750,000 Australians of Indian origin, and those inbound Indian tourists with high-spend potential. "Australia has been ranked number one in terms of tourist spend per night," said Nishant, "So, our focus is on yield and value rather than volumes alone. So, it makes sense to focus on high-value travellers."

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According to data from Tourism Australia, India ranks number 6 and 7 in terms of tourist spend and arrivals in Australia, respectively: “The goal is to get both these numbers in the top-5 by 2030."

Ranked above India in tourist arrivals and spend — in no particular order — are countries like China, the United States, New Zealand, the UK, Japan, and Singapore. China is Australia’s largest market number of tourist arrivals and average tourist-spend.