ATC praises Qantas' new services to India and China

The announcement today by Qantas to introduce new services to India and China will help stimulate tourism growth from these two emerging markets, Australian Tourist Commission (ATC) Managing Director, Ken Boundy said today.

"Qantas will now fly direct services between Mumbai and Sydney, three times per week, which will help to open up a future growth market for Australia," Mr Boundy said.

"The new services will provide Indian travellers with the option to fly direct to Australia - significantly reducing travel time and increasing the appeal of Australia as a holiday destination.

"Visitors from India increased by 32 per cent in December 2003, with 45,600 visitors to Australia last year.

"Marketing programs in India including the appointment of cricketing legend Steve Waugh as Australia's Tourism Ambassador is helping to stimulate visitation to Australia - and the new services by Qantas will foster further tourism growth."

Mr Boundy said the industry would welcome Qantas re-entering the China market and the presence of an Australian airline would help to grow visitor numbers.

"China is expected to be the fastest growing tourist market for Australia with visitor numbers expected to reach record levels in 2004," Mr Boundy said.

"Tourist arrivals from China have rebounded strongly in recent months with a 21 per cent jump in visitor numbers in December. There are indications that this growth has continued in January during the Chinese New Year celebrations.

"Visitors from China have grown significantly in the past decade from 29,680 visitors in 1994 to over 176,000 last year.

"The announcement of the new China services will help continue this strong growth over the next few years.

"The ATC looks forward to working with Qantas to promote Australia as a holiday destination in both India and China in coming months."

The Australian Tourism Forecasting Council expects visitors from India to increase by 13.7 per cent (50,400 visitors) and visitors from China to increase by 21.8 per cent (215,000 visitors) in 2004.