By IANS
Mumbai : Australia hopes to attract more than 159,000 Indian tourists annually by 2010, said Abhilasha Jain, country manager of Tourism Australia.
“Australia welcomed 95,200 Indians last year, which was an increase of 14 percent over the previous year. We hope to have at least 113,000 visitors from India in 2008,” said Maggie White, general manager, South, South-East Asia and Gulf countries, Tourism Australia.
According to Tourism Forecasting Council, India is one of the top 15 largest inbound markets for arrivals in Australia.
“We will continue to focus our efforts in India on increasing awareness of Australia as a destination and the myriad of experiences that we have to offer Indian consumers,” White said.
Of the total arrivals of visitors from India in 2007, a significant growth was noted in holiday traffic (23,822), visiting friends and relatives (20,914), business (24,922), education (10,333), employment (7,269) and others (7,951).
Currently, an Indian tourist spends around $4,906 per trip including prepaid international airfares and accommodation, Australia Tourism officials said.
In 2007, Indian visitors spent approximately $463 million in Australia.
Of all the Indians travelling to Australia, nearly 61 percent are first time visitors.