India has emerged at number 5 in Australia’s top international markets for the year ending September 2023 with 365,000 trips i.e. a total spend in Australia was $1.4 billion, 11% up on September 2019 levels.
According to Australia’s leading provider of quality tourism intelligence across both international and domestic markets, Tourism Research Australia, New South Wales (NSW) has become Australia’s top destination for visitors from India.
NSW has been able to get back to its share of Indian visitors to Australia reaching the pre-COVID-19 levels.
Steve Cox, CEO of Destination NSW, said in a post that “Half of all Indian visitors to Australia chose to visit NSW”:
“This is great news for the rebounding NSW visitor economy. India is one of our fastest growing inbound visitor markets with enormous potential for growth as we continue on our path to make NSW the premier visitor economy of the Asia Pacific by 2030.”
In the year ending September 2023, NSW welcomed 183,400 visitors from India who stayed more than seven million nights and injected over $488 million into the state’s visitor economy.
Mr Cox added:
“We look forward to welcoming many more Indian guests to NSW and to working collaboratively with industry to ensure that the experience they have here, keeps them coming back for more.”
The top 4 main reasons for travel to Australia in the year ending September 2023:
- Visiting friends and relatives with 2.3 million trips.
- Business travel with 681,000 trips.
- Holiday travel with 2.3 million trips.
- Education with 406,000 trips.
Overall, the proportion of trips to Australia for holiday purposes continued to increase from 35% in the year ending June 2023 to 37% in the year ending September 2023. This is the highest proportion since falling to 3% in the year ending March 2021 as a result of international border closures.
In 2014, Destination NSW launched Jhappi Time (‘Hug Time’) tourism campaign specifically targeting the visiting friends and relatives market in India.
Jhappi Time campaign videos telling the stories of Indian families enjoying time with family and friends on holiday in NSW were released in Indian cinemas to create more interest.
Mr Cox is hopeful that “There is so much more to come, this is just the beginning.”
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