Online visa facility for Preferred Aussie Specialists in India
India has been chosen as Tourism’s Australia’s worldwide candidate for the launch of online facility for visa application for its Preferred Aussie Specialist (PAS) members in India.
The pilot was launched in August with ten PAS agents, five apiece from Mumbai and Delhi and according to Tourism Australia’s Maggie White, the Indian market which recorded the highest growth in arrivals last year from any Asian market (the continent is the largest contributor of tourism to Australia), was ready for the next phase which entailed an increase in budget 20%, aggressive advertising, targeting secondary markets and introducing more activity and destination options within Australia.
The initiative will enable PAS agents to submit their clients’ visa applications online, directly to the consulate, with this facility now extended to all PAS agents.
436 agents from 127 agencies are registered as Aussie Specialists in 24 cities in India, with significantly, several more tertiary cities now having Aussie Specialist agents including Amritsar, Bhubaneshwar, Cuttack, Guwahati, Indore, Jodhpur, Ludhiana, Nagpur, Secunderabad and Chandigarh.
TA has also begun profiling Indian tourists, revealing their increasing propensity for soft adventure and preference for places beyond Gold Coast and Sydney.
South Australia and Tasmania figure are leading as new destinations on an Indian outbounder traveller’s itinerary, with visitor arrival forecasts from India expected to increase on an average growth of 14.2% over the next decade.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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