Fully-vaccinated Indian travellers can now avail themselves of quarantine-free entry to Australia, which reopened its borders for international visitors from Monday after two years. Australians, foreign students, skilled workers and parents of Australian citizens and permanent residents were allowed to return from late last year, but the country remained closed for foreigners. Australia has seen one of the strictest lockdowns globally. From Monday all international travellers, including those planning a holiday or visiting friends and relatives, or those intending to travel for business can enjoy quarantine free entry and won’t need to seek a travel exemption. Pre Covid-19, four lakh passengers travelled to Australia annually, accounting 4.2% of international arrivals at 94 lakh travellers. India saw 2.6 crore international departures in 2018, according to the Bureau of Immigration. India ranked six for average spend and number seven for arrivals in Australia as compared to global travellers. “There were three key achievements we had earned before Covid-19. India was the fastest growing in-bound market for Australia for three consecutive years between 2017 and 2019. The second achievement was that we saw double digit growth for six consecutive years not just in arrivals, but also in spend. Arrivals grew at a CAGR [compounded annual growth rate] of 15% and spend of CAGR of 17%. While Indian outbound industry grew at 8%, arrivals into Australia grew almost by 15% — so we were growing at a rate that was almost double of the Indian outbound industry,” Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager (India and Gulf), Tourism Australia told The Hindu. He said India was expected to send 10 lakh travellers annually by 2030, who would spend AUD 5 billion. “Summer is around the corner and we feel that there is a huge pent-up demand as far as travel from India to Australia is concerned. Indian families and those who possibly got married in the past two years and have not embarked on a long vacation or a honeymoon will find the summer months of April, May, June perfect to visit Australia. We also see a lot of demand for ICC T20 World Cup in October and November we already have a lot of enquiries from ICC’s official travel agents, the hospitality agents and corporates planning their incentive programmes,” Mr. Kashikar said. “Australia presents a significant opportunity for Indian consumers and this is across segments of leisure, business, bleisure, students and VFR [Visiting friends & relatives]. Further, upcoming sporting events like the T20 cricket fixtures in October–November this year, will be a key driver for both our leisure and corporate MICE [Meetings, incentive travel, conferences and exhibition] segments,” Mr. Indiver Rastogi- President & Group Head – Global Business Travel – Thomas Cook (India) & SOTC. Mr. Rastogi said destinations like the U.S. for holders of visas as well as the U.K., Serbia, Spain, Switzerland were other destinations with entry restrictions eased that Indians could also visit.
Fully-vaccinated Indian travellers can now avail themselves of quarantine-free entry to Australia, which reopened its borders for international visitors from Monday after two years. Australians, foreign students, skilled workers and parents of Australian citizens and permanent residents were allowed to return from late last year, but the country remained closed for foreigners. Australia has seen one of the strictest lockdowns globally. From Monday all international travellers, including those planning a holiday or visiting friends and relatives, or those intending to travel for business can enjoy quarantine free entry and won’t need to seek a travel exemption. Pre Covid-19, four lakh passengers travelled to Australia annually, accounting 4.2% of international arrivals at 94 lakh travellers. India saw 2.6 crore international departures in 2018, according to the Bureau of Immigration. India ranked six for average spend and number seven for arrivals in Australia as compared to global travellers. “There were three key achievements we had earned before Covid-19. India was the fastest growing in-bound market for Australia for three consecutive years between 2017 and 2019. The second achievement was that we saw double digit growth for six consecutive years not just in arrivals, but also in spend. Arrivals grew at a CAGR [compounded annual growth rate] of 15% and spend of CAGR of 17%. While Indian outbound industry grew at 8%, arrivals into Australia grew almost by 15% — so we were growing at a rate that was almost double of the Indian outbound industry,” Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager (India and Gulf), Tourism Australia told The Hindu. He said India was expected to send 10 lakh travellers annually by 2030, who would spend AUD 5 billion. “Summer is around the corner and we feel that there is a huge pent-up demand as far as travel from India to Australia is concerned. Indian families and those who possibly got married in the past two years and have not embarked on a long vacation or a honeymoon will find the summer months of April, May, June perfect to visit Australia. We also see a lot of demand for ICC T20 World Cup in October and November we already have a lot of enquiries from ICC’s official travel agents, the hospitality agents and corporates planning their incentive programmes,” Mr. Kashikar said. “Australia presents a significant opportunity for Indian consumers and this is across segments of leisure, business, bleisure, students and VFR [Visiting friends & relatives]. Further, upcoming sporting events like the T20 cricket fixtures in October–November this year, will be a key driver for both our leisure and corporate MICE [Meetings, incentive travel, conferences and exhibition] segments,” Mr. Indiver Rastogi- President & Group Head – Global Business Travel – Thomas Cook (India) & SOTC. Mr. Rastogi said destinations like the U.S. for holders of visas as well as the U.K., Serbia, Spain, Switzerland were other destinations with entry restrictions eased that Indians could also visit.
