Tourism Australia has launched the highly anticipated travel sale with key partners to provide Indian travellers with the opportunity to explore attractive deals on holidays to Australia, for a limited period. In addition to airfares, travellers can also view competitive prices on hotels, holiday packages and other tourism products and experiences.

As part of the campaign, Tourism Australia has partnered with five major airlines including Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Air India, Sri Lankan Airlines and Thai Airways to offer all-inclusive, return economy-class airfares to Australia starting from Rs. 53,600*. The sale is valid until 28 February 2023 with a travel validity of up to 31 December 2023 and will be further amplified by Tourism Australia’s key distribution partners and Aussie Specialist agents. Promoted across targeted digital and social media platforms this initiative will help to drive the recovery of tourism, by boosting arrivals to Australia, as well as increasing bookings on partner airlines and tourism products, while travellers gain access to great deals. The previous versions have recorded over 130,000 bookings for partner airlines. The campaign aims to facilitate aviation recovery and help Australian tourism return to pre-COVID levels.

Commenting on the sale, Mr. Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager, India and Gulf, Tourism Australia said, “Australia remains an incredibly desirable destination for visitors from India and we are always exploring avenues to keep offering great value on Australian holiday experiences to our Indian travellers. We are observing a new trend among consumers of longer term planning of holiday travel and we are confident that this campaign will offer a compelling reason for travellers to plan early and book their next holiday to Australia well in advance.”

India is currently ranked as the third largest source market for Australia and is expected to be the first market to recover to 2019 levels. Arrivals out of India since the reopening of Indian skies for scheduled international commercial airlines i.e., for the period April to November 2022 were at 88 per cent of 2019 levels, on the back of close to tripling of direct aviation connectivity on the India – Australia route.

Offers by airlines can be viewed at www.australia.com/greatdeals

• Singapore Airlines INR 53,600* Until 30 November 2023
• Air India INR 66,200* Until 31 December 2023
• Malaysia Airlines INR 63,233* Until 15 December 2023
• SriLankan Airlines INR 55,999* Until 01 December 2023
• Thai Airways INR 86,354* Until 31 December 2023

Hope the New Year has started well for everyone with high expectations for a solid recovery of the tourism and hospitality.

Let me begin with a good news.

AITTC for the second consecutive year is a finalist for the prestigious 2023 IABCA (India Australia Business & Community Alliance) Awards in the Australia India Impact ( Organisation) category.

All the winners will be announced on 15 February in New Delhi.

International travel to Australia is continuing to return at a steady pace with the latest results (ABS for November 2022) showing there were 505,240 international visitor arrivals for the month of November. This represents 62 per cent of 2019 volumes compared to the same month in 2019.

Travel in the Australia- India bilateral sector is pretty high, but covering dominantly the ‘Visiting Friends & Relatives’ traffic. The arrival figures from India in November 2022 (35700) is almost same as November 2019 results. All airlines operating in this sector doing very well, the highly priced fares are though not supporting growth in leisure tourism. Qantas has increased its code share arrangements with Indigo, now covering 19 cities in addition to Bengaluru from where it flies nonstop flights to Sydney and Delhi from where it flies nonstop to Melbourne.

With the increase in Covid infections in China, passengers travelling from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, Thailand and Japan have to again fill in the Air Subidha Form and mandatorily upload a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR report – the test has been conducted within 72 hours prior to undertaking the journey.  This regulation is applicable for passengers transiting through any of these countries.

The key challenges for AITTC in the new year is to establish contact and communication channels with all existing members in Australia and India to find out their current approach  on the respective markets ; offer them support to the extent possible ; identify other major outbound tour operators in every Australian state to inspire them on India and vice versa in India and increase knowledge about Australia/ India  particularly about non familiar iconic sites among potential travellers in both countries.

Sandip Hor

Chairman

Another year comes to end with travel slowly and steadily emerging from the post Covid period that brought travelling to a literal standstill. The downtime has given thought to food to realize the shortfalls and to put in new plans for the future. It is good to once again see the planes, ships in the oceans and rivers, hotels and motels opening up, and trains and automobiles moving at the same time.

Domestic tourism in each country has made people realize there is so much to see, do and enjoy in their own backyards and make the most of it.

The gurus predict that 2023 will take travel and tourism from boom to gloom to resurrection. Steady growth in forward bookings is looking positive, with anticipation that prices will make it affordable to get back to normal standards, without compromising on quality and service. There will be new innovative trends, and new initiatives with a wide range of products in the market, so travel will see a big change. Travelers will need to research, adapt, experience, be open-minded and tread with cautious footsteps. Suppliers and principals will once again and even more need to provide security and create a guarantee of service, resulting in consumer confidence moving forward. Promotional awareness and exposure with respect to opening boundaries of all forms of travel. Tourism bodies will need to treat and give this sector priority and recognise that tourism is a major financial contributor and offer incentives for success.

At AITTC we have continued to work behind the scenes – researching. having dialogues, holding webinars, publishing our newsletter and informing our readers on updates of the industry, interacting with government and tourism bodies, getting new members, and maintaining awareness that we have always been there.

Our recent participation in the Australia India Business Summit, holding a travel and tourism session was highly attended. It was good to once interact with industry colleagues and others. The podium had top tour operators from Wildlife Safaris, Adventure World, Tikka Tours and Taj Hotels giving their views on the status of their products and the way to the future.

AITTC appreciated the continued support of our industry partners for participating in our various events. AITTC looks forward to hosting more events with our partners in the coming year, so watch this space.

A word of thanks to the AITTC Executive Committee for their input.

Vinod Gajjar is the head of  Popcorn Tours Pty Ltd connected to Faro Duniya (A Unit of V World)” based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat – India. The Group V WORLD was established by well-travelled, vast experienced and knowledgeable promoter Vinod Gajjar who has 15 years experience in the trade with a professional team headed by Pinky Kishanchandani on the International side and Ms Sharmin Mirza on Domestic, besides other well-appointed professional staff to handle the other departments.

Vinod Gajjar is also conferred with certificates of Aussie Specialist Agent, South Africa Specialist and Canada Specialist Accreditation.

Anil Rodricks is Director Strategy at The Walshe Group which represents India’s Premium airline, Vistara in Australia & New Zealand. He also leads Lufthansa Group Airlines which includes Lufthansa, Swiss International Airlines, Austrians and others in the Lufthansa Group portfolio. He has over 25 years’ experience in senior roles in the Aviation industry. Vistara currently is jointly owned by Tata and Singapore Airlines and is ramping up its presence now that travel demand has increased substantially since travel restrictions due to Covid were lifted. The Australia-India air traffic is growing steadily and we want to participate in that growth.

Vistara spread its wings for the first time on January 9, 2015. The airline has 52 Aircrafts , 32 Domestic & 10 International destinations , Indian market share of 8.1% in May’22 ,over 30M pax carried, lowest customer complaints, cancellations, and denied boarding rates in India, • 230+ departures and 35,000 passengers a day , best on-time rate amongst full-service airlines and in Top 2 or 3, despite high DEL presence, won all major, recognized Best Airlines awards in India for the last 5 years. More info at www.airvistara.com

India assumed the G20 Presidency on the 1st of December 2022 from Indonesia and will convene the G20 Leaders’ Summit for the first time in the country in 2023.The G20 summit offers the best opportunity for India to showcase its culture, history and tourism potential and to position itself as a major tourist destination in the world. Between now and November 2023, India will host over 200 meetings across 55 cities and it’s hoped tourism into India from the member countries, which includes Australia will expand.

Some of the G20 meetings proposed to be held in several states of north east India which will act as a catalyst to promote the tourism gems from that region.

Recently Arvind Singh, secretary Ministry of Tourism, India has announced that a National Tourism Board will be established soon to manage all overseas marketing and promotions while the National Tourism Policy currently going through the phase of consultation with key stakeholders.

The new Board, to be chaired by the union Minister of Tourism will review the implementation of the tourism related policies. To be managed by a CEO, the Board with coordinate promotional activities with overseas missions.

The KAYAK research recently conducted by YouGov, surveyed over 1,900 Indian travelers, and found that travel restrictions resulting from the pandemic have contributed to the current surge in travel appetite, with three-quarters (78%) of respondents being excited to go back travelling in 2023. Exploring the world (62%) was mentioned as the main reason for the regained Indian travel desire, followed by living their dreams (61%), seeking thrills (55%), finding themselves (48%) and escaping their worries (43%).

60% of those surveyed consider themselves curious travelers. Curiosity also makes for more enriching experiences, as 75% of respondents also quenched their curiosity by usually exploring new and offbeat destinations.  73% mentioned that they discovered new food experiences when travelling, and 70% met new people and made friends from different cultures during previous trips.

With travel topping the 2023 to-do lists for a majority of Indian travelers surveyed, 77% have noticed more people posting their holiday pictures on social media in the past 12 months. Interestingly, ‘me time’ is becoming a consideration for Indian travelers, with 38% saying they prefer to travel alone rather than in a group in 2023. Greater control, freedom, and flexibility in planning holiday itineraries could be major factors that drive solo trips.

The survey reports that costs and sustainability are a key consideration for Indian travelers

IndiGo is amongst the fastest growing low-cost carriers in the world. In its effort to contribute to Digital India, India’s leading carrier, has become the first Indian airline to launch ‘Digital e-logbook’ for the pilots. In collaboration with DGCA, the e-logbook will provide direct flight data transfer service to pilots from IndiGo systems to eGCA logbooks, effective December 01, 2022.

Owing to this automated process, the flying hours entered in eGCA e-logbook will have consistency of data and format for all the stakeholders, which will increase more safety and efficiency in operations. This will also offer real time availability of flying hours data for pilots in compliance with rule 67A of Aircraft rules, and enable data accuracy and timely submission of issuance, renewals, and endorsement of licenses by removal of multilayer data validation.

This process will allow pilots to devote more time towards their skill enhancement and improve quality of life by freeing up time required for work manual log filling.

Sydney is calling locals and visitors to feel the Sydney Side of Summer as the city gears up to host its hottest summer ever with a jam-packed schedule of major music, art, culture, and sporting events.

The city will come alive with concerts, sporting matches, blockbuster musicals and museum openings, all set against the backdrop of Sydney’s golden beaches, glittering harbor, thriving dining scene and abundant national parks.

Minister for Tourism and the Arts Ben Franklin said this summer season is set to be Sydney’s biggest and best yet.

“The program of major events coming to Sydney this summer is unrivalled, from opera performances on the harbor and major international sporting events such as Aus Sail GP, to the Art Gallery of NSW Opening Festival, New Year’s Eve and Sydney World Pride, Sydney is the ultimate summer playground,” Mr Franklin said.

“We are committed to delivering fantastic events that not only provide fun and entertainment for Sydneysiders but also attract visitors from all over the world to experience the Sydney side of summer and position NSW as the major events capital of the Asia Pacific.”

Major events taking place in Sydney through to 2023 include the famous News Tears Eve Fire Works, Sydney to Hobart Boat Race, United Cup Tennis Tournament and the grand Sydney Festival from 5-29 Jan.