The Daily Telegraph reports that India is set to become the next tourist hot spot for Australia following a new Baz Luhrmann-designed campaign and the opening of a new tourism office by the Federal Government today.
The Mumbai-based Tourism Australia office is set to tap into one of Australia’s fastest growing tourism markets, which currently attracts about 114,000 Indian visitors a year, expected to swell by 20 per cent annually, with predictions of 500,000 tourists a year from India.
Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson opened Tourism Australia’s first office in India this week to capitalise on the spectacular growth that has made India Australia’s fastest-growing source of tourists and Australia’s fifth-biggest source of tourists, after New Zealand, Britain, Japan and the US.
India has already become Australia’s fifth-biggest export destination, after even more remarkable growth has lifted the value of exports by 30% a year over the same period, from $2.8 billion to $10.3 billion.
“For both nations, the Australia-India relationship is one of the great opportunities of this century”, Mr Ferguson said before leaving on a five-day trip to India.
In the year to August, overall tourist numbers fell by 10,000 — But the number of Indian tourists jumped by 22,000, or 24%.
A Report by The Mole
