By IANS
Jaipur : Australia was on show in India Travel Mission 2007 being held here.
India Travel Mission (ITM) is an annual business forum organised by Tourism Australia as part of its programme to boost sustainable tourism and continued growth. This year’s event is being held during Sep 10-14.
The forum includes scheduled appointments between buyers and sellers and informal networking sessions that facilitate interaction between Indian tour operators and Australian tourism industry representatives.
Maggie White, general manager, South and South East Asia and Gulf Countries, Tourism Australia, while talking to newspersons here Thursday, said, “The India Travel Mission 2007 provides a great opportunity for representatives from the Australian tourism industry to establish and develop business relationships with key travel agencies and tour operators from all over India.”
White added that Australia’s natural environment, iconic sights and engaging “easy-adventure” activities make it one of the most enriching and engaging travel destinations in the world.
“We have the opportunity to attract Indian visitors to new products, in addition to the regular attractions. There is also potential to increase the number of nights spent in Australia by introducing new and compelling experiences close to the main cities popular with Indian travellers. To facilitate this, we have brought in 15 new Australian sellers for this year’s ITM,” said White.
ITM has seen increasing participation from both buyers and sellers over the years. ITM 2006 attracted 48 Australian sellers and 110 Indian travel industry representatives, while ITM 2005 saw 42 Australian sellers and 99 Indian travel industry representatives participating.
This year’s event has seen over 120 representatives from Indian travel agencies meeting with over 50 Australian operators. Abhilasha Jain, manager, India, Tourism Australia, said, “We have organised ITM primarily to assist and support the Indian travel fraternity in selling Australia to Indian travellers, and the response from the industry has been fantastic.
She said that ITM has played its part in helping increase the number of Indian visitors to Australia. In 2006, 83,800 Indians visited Australia – a 23.2 percent increase over the previous year. Nearly half of the arrivals were for leisure, while another 20 percent was attributed to business travel.
Growth continued for the first half of 2007, with 48,400 visitors from India visiting that country – an increase of 10 percent relative to the same period of the previous year.
The Australian Tourism Forecasting Council estimates that visitors from India in 2007 will be over 100,000.