India and Australia join forces to promote tourism
An Indian Government delegation led by Renuka Chowdhury, Minister of State for Tourism, Government of India, recently attended a Joint Working Meeting in Australia with Australia’s Federal Tourism Minister, Fran Bailey and attended by industry tourism and travel industry leaders from India and Australia.
Both ministers agreed to adopt an action plan to have effective bilateral co-operation in various areas of tourism and travel and they also agreed to establish a bilateral ecotourism working group to identify joint research and training projects, with eco-tourism, sharing expertise and a tourism business forum forming the basis of a joint action plan for putting tourism growth between India and Australia on a fast track.
According to this agreed joint action plan, both countries will jointly promote the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games and 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games to generate significantly increased tourists’ flow.
Joint marketing for tourism promotion, improved air connectivity, regular interaction between Australian Federation for Travel Agents and the Travel Agent Association of India, collaboration in the area of human resource developments and facilitating travel procedures in support of bilateral tourist flows were also discussed during the meeting, which also stressed the importance of developing better understanding of tourism products in each other’s countries by the tourism stakeholders of the two countries.
It was also agreed that Australia will host an Australia-India Tourism Business Forum in Melbourne during the 2006 Commonwealth Games and both delegations exchanged views on a way forward to encourage shared learning in preservation of the natural and cultural heritage.
Eco-tourism was identified as an area of vital interest to both countries and it was agreed to establish an eco-tourism working group for this purpose.
“India and Australia have strong relationships on many levels, from our shared history as robust democracies under the Commonwealth to our shared passion for cricket”, said Minister Bailey.”Our tourism statistics are also highlighting a growing interest in visiting each other’s countries. Indian tourism to Australia is forecast to grow at an average 14 per cent per year for the next decade while Australian tourism to India has grown by 22 per cent in the last 12 months,” she added.
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