Air India’s decision to start direct flights to Sydney and Melbourne, Australia after a gap of 16 years has brought a lot of cheer to different parties. Along with those who regularly seek tickets to fly on India-Australia route, the proposition of direct flights has gladdened the heart of Australian Government agency, Tourism Australia.
The agency feels that with availability of travel tickets on direct flights, people who seek tickets to travel to Australia from India will be well catered to. Many nations, including Australia, view India as a country with a massive outbound tourism potential. As per reports, almost 50 million Indian tourists are expected to travel overseas by 2020. It is this segment Australia hopes to target and with improved air connectivity between the two nations, the job is going to get only easier.
From 29 Aug, the Indian flag carrier will operate daily services on a triangular route - Delhi-Sydney-Melbourne on four days of week and Delhi-Melbourne-Sydney flights on three. Surely, there are enough options for those who wish to book tickets for the services.
Some 160,000 Indian tourists visited Australia in 2012, and the Australian agency hopes that the number will double by 2020. Most industry experts agree that the direct flight service by AI is sure to provide a great stimulus to the endeavour to cater to the expected additional demand of air tickets for Australia from India.
On its part, Tourism Australia has doubled its spending for marketing in India to persuade more number of potential holiday makers to grab tickets on flights bound to Australia.