Chennai: Australian tourism promotion agency ‘Tourism Australia’ is expecting a sizeable spike in the arrivals of Indian tourists next year to watch the Women’s and Men’s ICC T20 World Cup matches, according to Nishant Kashikar who is the country manager of the company.
“We expect an additional Indian tourists of about 30,000-40,000 next year owing to the ICC T20 World Cup matches-Women and Men,” Nishant Kashikar told this agency Friday.
The agency hopes to set a world record for highest number of attendees at a women’s sporting event at the finals of the T20 World Cup scheduled to be played March 8, 2020, which is celebrated across the globe as International Women’s Day. The men’s and women’s World Cup will be played across eight cities. The finals of both segments will come off at the MCG.
According to Kashikar, ticket-inclusive travel and tours packages are being offered by the official ticketing agents appointed by the International Council of Cricket (ICC), including ‘Bharat Army Travel’, ‘Cutting Edge Events’, ‘Fanatic Sports’, ‘Gainwell Sports’ and ‘Sports Konnect’.
In addition, Tourism Australia is partnering with the travel industry to continue efforts in promoting the country as a holiday destination of choice for Indian high value travellers.
“The powerful brag value of watching a match live at a popular destination like Australia works like magic and the innumerable posts and images across social media is testament of its virality,” Rajeev Kale, a senior official of Thomas Cook (India) told this agency.
“We have already started receiving queries for the upcoming T20 matches in Australia and considering that October coincides with the peak season for Indians travelling to Australia, the timing couldn’t be better,” Kale added.
Kashikar said to ensure ease of visa applications, the Department of Home Affairs allows travellers from India to apply for a visa online. The visa is processed in 15 days and is valid for 12 months. He said last year (July 2018-June 2019), the total tourists arrival in Australia was at 9.3 million, out of which there were 3,72,000 Indians.
In the last financial year, Indian visitors spent 1.7 billion Australian dollars (approximately Rs 8,300 crore) on their Australian trips, an increase of 12 per cent over the previous year, Kashikar said.
IANS