The Australian Chamber – Tourism supports the Morrison Government's focus on the fast growing Indian visitor economy.
At the 25th annual World Routes Conference, held in South Australia, Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham highlighted the need for more direct flights between India and Australia.
"The burgeoning Indian middle class with its high disposable income creates great opportunity for Australia to attract high value travellers from the country. But, to achieve visitation, we need better airline access between the two countries," Mr Hart said.
"Limited direct flights between India and Australia necessitate a stopover in South East Asia to fly to different Australian destinations. This reduces the number of days these visitors spend in our country.
"More direct flights and a targeted marketing campaign to attract Indian visitors will go a long way in bringing them to our shores.
"The T20 World Cup in 2020 is a good opportunity to gain greater visitation from India, however we must leverage the ability to capture the larger Indian market, particularly high value travellers looking to spend more nights and dollars in Australia.
"Efficient and fast visa processing is another factor that drives greater visitation and the Government has made headway with the introduction of online visa applications for Indian visitors but there is still some way to go to streamline the process."
The Australian Chamber-Tourism and members look forward to continuing to work with the Government to increase visitation from our fastest growing inbound market.
The Australian Chamber – Tourism is the country's peak body representing national tourism groups.
