South Australia continues to record strong growth in the Indian market with a surge in its latest visitor and spend numbers. With the recent results, India is now the eighth-largest source market for South Australia. The International Visitor Survey results released by Tourism Research Australia indicate a 30 per cent rise in the number of Indians travelling to South Australia as of March 2017. Moreover, the Festival State also saw an additional spend of $23mn as compared to the last year, which is reflected in the steep 130 per cent rise in spends. The average year-on-year growth over the last three years, both in terms of visitor and spend figures, has been steadily increasing at a rate of 8.33 per cent and 39.7 per cent respectively. Commenting on the results, Dana Urmonas, Regional Director (India & Southeast Asia), South Australian Tourism Commission, said, “India has always been an important growth market for us and we are happy to see Indians increasingly opting to travel to South Australia. We will continue to focus on the India market and toward this we will be rolling out some exciting initiatives over the next year as well. Our target segments will continue to include families, honeymooners and independent leisure travellers in the age group of 25-45 in primary markets of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.” Data provided by a recent Consumer Demand Project conducted by Tourism Australia indicate that South Australia has been moving up the consideration set of Indians looking to travel to Australia for leisure purposes. According to the report, Kangaroo Island in South Australia is ranked number three on Indian traveller’s consideration list after Sydney and Melbourne. Some of the sought …

Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January to May this year were 465.87 lakhs as against 396.04 lakhs during the corresponding period of the previous year, thereby registering a growth of 17.63 per cent. This was revealed by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) after analysing the traffic data submitted by various domestic airlines in May 2017. SpiceJet recorded the highest Passenger Load Factor (PLF) of 94.3 per cent, while IndiGo came out the winner in terms of On Time Performance (OTP) at 85 per cent.

Guidelines for wellness and yoga tourism in India will be released on June 21 on the occasion of International Yoga Day while the policy for medical tourism in India will be announced in three to four weeks subsequently, informed Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (Independent charge) for Tourism and Culture, Government of India. This was announced during the third meeting of the National Medical and Wellness Tourism Promotion Board (NMWTPB) where members of the board discussed ways to improve the structure of the policy and make it more comprehensive. Sharma said, “Medical and wellness tourism plays a major role in overall growth of tourism. India offers some very intricate treatments at one sixth the cost in comparison to many countries; have the best professionals and the most acclaimed paramedical staff. To harness the potential of this segment, we are going to divide the segment in two phases. On June 21 we will release the guidelines for wellness centers, spas and yoga centers for tourism purposes. We have asked the members of the Board for suggestions to prepare a draft Medical Tourism Policy, which will be then reviewed and later released in a matter of three to four weeks. We are also working on a dynamic, interactive web portal which will be one stop shop for medical value travel needs. The purpose is to standardise the rates of various services, provide a list of medical tourism providers and offer a single window system to medical and wellness tourism in a transparent manner.” Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, added that generally medical and wellness tourism are seen as separate entities but the NMWTPB is a landmark committee where …

Come July 1, Indians flying abroad will not have to fill departure cards. According to an order issued by the Union Home Ministry, “It has been decided to discontinue the practice of filling up of the departure card by Indians at all international airports with effect from July 1, 2017.” This is one of the steps by the government to ensure hassle-free movement of Indians travelling abroad. However, those going out of the country via rail, seaport and land immigration check-posts need to fill the embarkation card. The Home Ministry has said that the information shared by the passengers is available in the system from other sources as well. This would reduce the time required to complete immigration related formalities by passengers and would also allow airports to handle larger number of people.

Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu flagged off Gandhi Darshan Special Tourist Train on June 17, 2017. In order to commemorate the centenary celebration of Sabarmati Ashram associated with the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, Ministry of Railways has decided to run Gandhi Darshan Special Tourist Train covering all the important tourist places under Gandhian Circuit. The train will be operated by its PSU IRCTC. Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu flagged off this train through video conferencing from Bandra, the train started its journey from Sabarmati on June 17 (Saturday), the centenary day of Sabarmati Ashram in the presence of Gujarat Chief Minister, Vijay Rupani. This Gandhi Special Tourist train will cover all the important destinations like Wardha, Motihari, Bettiah, Gaya, Varanasi, Allahabad and Surat connected with India’s freedom struggle movement & Mahatma Gandhi. The train will be on a special tour for 10 days from June 17 to 26, 2017.

The Australian High Commission and Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection have announced that all Indian nationals will be able to lodge visitor visa applications for Australia online from July 1, 2017. The Acting Australian High Commissioner to India, Chris Elstoft, said eligible Indian nationals can now apply online for a visitor visa through the Department’s ImmiAccount portal. Online application offers benefits such as 24/7 accessibility, electronic payment of the visa application charge and the ability to check the status of applications lodged online. With the applicant’s permission, the online form can be completed by a third party such as a family member here or in Australia, a travel agent, or its contracted visa application centre, VFS. “Processing times for these visas will now be faster, as both applications and supporting documentation are immediately available to the processing office. This is good news for every Indian visitor to Australia, whether they are travelling for business or pleasure,” Elstoft said. Being able to check the status of an application online, as soon as it is finalised, will allow Indian applicants to finalise their travel arrangements as soon as possible. “With the rising popularity of Australia as a holiday destination, there has been a significant rise in demand for Australian visas in India. There were more than 265,000 Indian visitor arrivals from July-Mar 2017, an increase of 15.4 per cent compared to the same period last year,” he adds.

Thailand Travel Mart 2017 has ended a successful two-year run in the northern capital of Chiang Mai, and will move to the resort city of Pattaya next year. The event was attended by 423 buyers from 56 countries. Although the main markets of China, India, Russia, Europe and the UK dominated the list, the focus on buyers from the eastern European countries, Latin America and South Africa. Moreover, first-time buyers comprised 47.8 per cent of the total. The theme “Delivering Unique Experiences” was designed to be in line with the overall tourism marketing slogan. All the pre and post-tours were specially selected to include the spectacular range of Royal Projects, Northern Thai museums, restaurants, community-based products and heritage sites in line with that theme. This year, the show was attended by 362 sellers from Thailand and the neighbouring Mekong countries, the vast majority of whom were small & medium sized hotels and boutique resorts emerging by the dozens all over the country. Giving exposure to these SMEs, most of whom cannot afford to attend the large global travel trade events, is  a primary objective of the TTM+. The first knowledge-transfer session was held on the first day, led by Minister Kobkarn on community-based tourism. She was followed by speakers talking on crisis management, culinary tourism and the digital economy. On the third day, around 600 participants from travel & tourism training institutes and entrepreneurs in Chiang Mai benefitted from a day-long seminar series by TAT executives and some of Thailand’s leading private sector executives on market trends. One of the key highlights of the event was a showcase of indigenous products reflecting the best of Northern Thai culture, arts and …

Flight Shop, the leisure brand of Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), Australia, in India opened its first retail store in Surat and second franchise outlet after Hyderabad. With the launch of this store, FCTG, Australia now has 17 operational Flight Shop stores across India. Spread over 1100 sq. ft., the Flight Shop outlet in Surat is based in VIP High Street, and will cater to the needs of up market urban consumers – families, business travellers, honeymoon couples and groups of travellers. Shravan Gupta, Executive Director – Leisure Businesses, FCM Travel Solutions India (the Indian arm of Flight Centre Travel Group, Australia) said, “Over the last few years, Surat has grown to become one of the fastest developing cities in the country with constantly rising travel demands of two to three trips in a year per household. As an affluent market driven by diamond and textile merchants, Surat is one of the highest contributors to the GDP amongst other emerging metros such as – Jaipur, Vishakhapatnam and Lucknow.” Flight Shop stores are spread across Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi and via a combination of owned branches and newly opened franchise outlets. FCTG, Australia plans to open 50 more Flight Shop stores across the country in the next two to three years.

The 10th Conventions India Conclave, a flagship event of the India Convention Promotion Bureau (ICPB) has been finalized to be held in Hyderabad from 29th – 31st August 2017. ICPB will be hosting their annual Conventions India Conclave at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre this time around. This was announced by Chander Mansharamani, Vice Chairman, ICPB who also added,“ We will take this opportunity to project ICPB as a parent body for promoting as a convention destination especially when we are working on restructuring of ICPB and strengthening of ICPB .” The theme of the event is Expanding the Boundaries – Mission Possible, focusing on all the segments of MICE. The conclave is expected to have a huge turnout of 250 – 300 delegates comprising stakeholders, corporate heads, the medical fraternity representatives, the scientific community and all other decision makers. Along with them there will be nearly 60 – 70 exhibitors at the conclave. In addition to the B2B meetings this year there will also be an association networking evening, where members will get a chance to interact with all the medical association leaders who are responsible for conducting their events and meeting in India.

The Government of Kerala is looking at 50 per cent increase in the number of domestic tourists and 100  per cent increase in foreign arrivals by 2021, Tourism Minister, Kadakampally Surendran has said. “Digital platforms are the key to achieve the aim. Year after year, we see a constant growth in the number of tourists we host. Hence the industry needs to evolve in accordance with the changes in global market. Kerala Tourism has been exploring new media as a key platform and has witnessed the reach and response to it,” he noted. Dr. Venu V, IAS, Principal Secretary, Kerala Tourism, says, “Kerala Tourism has always been in the forefront as we were the first tourist destination to start a website. Later, we spread our presence to other social media platforms. The technology platforms are gently stronger. Hence we need to redesign and reengineer to cater the demands of guests.”