Australia’s tourism department is preparing Puja travel packages for tourists from Kolkata and is in talks with several tour operators in the city.
It has also requested several airlines to start direct flights between Kolkata and Australia, said an official of Tourism Australia.
“India is the first market to achieve pre-Covid levels and Kolkata is a very important market for us,” said Nishant Kashikar, country manager, India and Gulf, Tourism Australia. “We are working with local travel agents in Kolkata to develop Puja packages.”
Kashikar said they were in talks with around a dozen travel agents in the city. “The Puja packages focus on everything for everybody, catering to three generations of tourists visiting Australia,” said Kashikar.
He said a two-week package that would cover four out of the eight states in Australia would cost between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 3.5 lakh per person, which will include airfares. The packages will be available during the Puja-Diwali season and also for honeymooners throughout the year.
“We have approached several airlines to operate direct flights between Kolkata and Australia,” he said. However, there has been no positive response yet, he said.
Kashikar said a number of factors are boosting post-Covid tourism in Australia.
After Australia reopened tourism in February 2022, there has been a significant growth in footfall from India, said Kashikar. Between July 2022 and June 2023, 3,83,000 Indians visited Australia, which is 3 per cent higher than the figures in 2018-19.
“Pre-Covid, India was the seventh largest for the inbound market in Australia. Now it is number four,” said Kashikar.
He said Indians had spent Rs 11,000 crore in Australia between July 2022 and June 2023, which is 16 per cent more compared with the 2018-19 figure.
Ease of visa processing has been an important factor in the growth in footfall from India, said Kashikar.
“It is a fully digitised process with no personal interviews or biometrics. There is no need to physically submit personal documents, including passport. It’s also not mandatory to attach flight ticket or accommodation vouchers at the time of application,” he said.
The Australian department of home affairs offers a streamlined and personalised visa service for large corporate or incentive groups, with a dedicated email ID, group ID and visa officer to address queries.
Also, there has been a significant rise in MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) travel with lots of sectors like banking, infrastructure, automobiles and healthcare sending groups to Australia.
“There were big groups of MICE travellers from Kolkata,” he said.
Another factor was the tripling of air capacity between India and Australia.
“Because of more flights, the fares to Australia have become competitive. So
many tourists are showing interest. Earlier, there were delays in visa processing for Australia but that has been eased out,” said Anil Punjabi, chairman, east,
Travel Agents Federation of India.
Tour operators said many tourists were also seeking a combined package of Australia and New Zealand.