Australian government has proposed renewal of the memorandum of understanding on tourism cooperation with India. The MoU expired in 2008.
Chiranjeevi, tourism minister assured his Australian counterpart, Martin Ferguson of strengthening bilateral tourism cooperation. Ferguson was visiting India to discuss tourism industry issues with Chiranjeevi.
The Australian tourism minister called for direct air connectivity between the two countries to boost tourism and also a creation of a joint tourism forum where the tour operators, hoteliers, airlines and other tourism stakeholders form both the countries could exchange the ideas for promotion and development of tourism between both the countries. He also suggested easing of visa norms to improve the tourist inflow.
Australia is one of top 10 tourist generating markets for India as far as inbound tourism is concerned. In 2011, 186,000 Australians visited India compared to approximately 170,000 travellers from the country in the previous year.
Ministry of Tourism in association with Indian Association of Tour Operators organized road shows in Sydney and Melbourne in October this year. Tourism ministry also hosted tour operators, travel agents, travel writers from Australia on familiarisation tour of India under its hospitality scheme.
