Tourism Australia to explore partnerships with banks to focus on ‘high-value travellers’ from India

Tourism Australia will continue to focus on high-value travellers from India in the post-Covid era. While India continues to remain a rising star for the nation Down Under, emerging as the sixth largest market for spend and seventh largest for arrivals in 2019, the board will seek partnerships with banks and financial institutions to gain access to individuals in the high-net worth bracket. Tourism Australia, said, “Our overarching focus is on yield-based and spend-based segmentation. Outbound travel constitutes just 1.2% of the population in India, and our focus continues to remain on high-value travellers. These travellers, per capita spend on an average 5,000 dollars in Australia, and they remain our focus post-Covid as well''. Since Australia isn’t a mass destination, it is a planned move to shift focus from demographic to psychographic segmentation. Therefore, in India, we will explore partnerships with banks and financial institutions that have access to high-value customers with substantial savings. The number of Indian tourists to Australia is expected to triple to nearly 1.2 million by 2035. Therefore, Tourism Australia has identified India as a rising star market that has the potential to deliver up to one million visitors over the next decade. While Australia will take a gradual and cautious approach to reopening its borders, the importance of India in 2021 cannot be ignored, Kashikar stated. Commenting on Australia’s focus on China at a time when relationship between the two nations are strained and drawing comparison with India, Kashikar shared, “China will continue to be a key market, and its importance cannot be neglected; it the biggest market for spend and arrivals. India is almost 14 years behind China in terms of arrivals and spend, and therefore the entire focus is to capitalise on the India opportunity.”