The Australia India Travel & Tourism Council (AITTC) organised a strategic round table in Sydney, with the theme being “Opportunities & Challenges for Bilateral Tourism”. The Objective was to facilitate growth in bilateral travel between Australia and India. It provided a platform for the industry to communicate, consult and collaborate on tourism between the two countries. Big tour operators, airlines, hotels, airports and media operating in the Australia -India travel domain represented their membership. They see Tourism Australia and India Tourism as two top stakeholders.
The idea of this workshop was to get together with some key industry members, stakeholders and influencers, to hear from key participants on issues affecting Australia tourism growth; to understand the growth potential; and finally come up with some strategic initiatives.
In addition to Tourism Australia and India Tourism, the Indian High Commissioner, DFAT, Austrade, Sydney based tour operators, hotels , airlines, airports, media also attended the conference.
To set the scene for the actual round table session , there were brief presentations from the tourism authorities and few of the outbound tour operators regarding issues and opportunities which they faced for tourism from India to Australia and vice versa. Thomas Cook India was approached for the video , featuring Abraham Alapatt and Rajeev Kale, which was shared and showcased at the event.
Sandip Hor, Chairman, Australia India Travel & Tourism Council, said: “On behalf of AITTC, I thank you for the kind video clippings which were presented at the round table conference yesterday. It was very pertinent to the current scenario , raising thoughts and questions. The conference was well attended by senior executives of Tourism Australia, India Tourism, tour operators, hotels, airlines and government . The Indian High Commissioner to Australia was also personally present. According to all attendees, the entire proceedings of the conference were very informative, and the actual round table discussion following the presentations generated thoughts and action points. We hope to compile them in a report to be submitted to all in due course.”