Australia & Beyond Holidays, one of Australia’s inbound travel management operator, is all set to tap the Indian market. Earlier this year, the group appointed Blue Square Communications as its India representatives. Australia & Beyond Holidays provides global solutions to Indian travel agents, from both a DMC products and FIT.
Speaking about the brand, Simon Bernardi, Director, Australia & Beyond Holidays, said, “India continues to be an important tourism market for Australia, with growth of over 15 per cent in arrivals over last year. We are very strong in the Hong Kong and South East Asian Market. India offers a lot of potential opportunities. Indians are quality travellers and also high spenders. The Indian traveller fits into our model as they are looking for experiences.”
The company is mainly targeting Indian leisure travellers and aims to promote Australia, beyond the usual itinerary. The company is well equipped to cater to the F&B requirement of Indian visitors.
Speaking about the segments, Bernardi said, “Major target segment will be the leisure travel, honeymooners and family. Australia is a family destination; it’s a very safe destination and is popular amongst Indian travellers. We know the Indian market very well and are well equipped to cater to this market. We would like to see Indian travellers go to two destinations for 14-16 days. This will give a better experience and can explore more what the cities have got to offer. What Indians do right now is go to more destinations for a short time. Australia is a repeat destination.”
He further said, “We understand the Indian customer quite well. We cater to Indian dietary requirement. Australia has a lot of Indian restaurants. We want to promote Australia beyond the typical east coast itinerary. We want to promote destinations like Adelaide, Kangaroo Island, Perth, Northern Territory, etc. We will offer something different apart from the normal destinations popular amongst the Indians. The most popular itinerary for Indian travellers are three cities; Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland. The itinerary is short as of now for Indians and they explore very quickly.”
Australia & Beyond Holidays has its online Agora booking system that offers land products and hotels worldwide, many with allocations. It is also looking to tap conference groups from India, the group provides customised as well as end to end services to such groups. “We are also looking at the conference groups; we will add value for their trips. We provide end to end services and also customised services. We have an FIT system which is best in market; this has static and dynamic rates. We have contracted hotels in a lot of hotels in Australia,” he added.
Currently, their major source markets are South East Asia and China. India is growing market for the company. Bernardi said, “We want grow strong in this market. Last year we have done 560 series group from Hong Kong, so we would like to see similar growth from this market as well.”
