The world’s smallest continent and the largest island, Australia is home to picture-perfect rain forests, quirkiest wildlife, coral reefs, stunning beaches, and deserts. Australia has opened its borders for Indian tourists.
To know more about the country and travel protocols, here is an interview with Mr. Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager (India & Gulf), Tourism Australia.
Now that Australia is open for Indian tourists. Kindly share some information about the new travel and visa protocols post COVID.
The Australian Government has announced a number of initiatives to encourage visitors back to Australia, including; a) The Visa Application Charge (VAC) waiver program for those travellers whose visa has expired or is due to expire, between 20th March 2020 and 30th June 2022, will be exempted from charges for a future Visitor visa and b) Personalised visa service for large corporate or incentive groups.
Before departing from India, travellers will require a valid visa; a vaccination certificate indicating that TWO doses of Covaxin or Covishield have been administered; a negative Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test taken within 72 hours prior to departure and a Digital Passenger Declaration (DPD) to be submitted 72 hours prior to departure.
For travel into specific states and territories in Australia, travellers are advised to visit www.australia.gov.au/states for latest information on entry protocols.
Would you like to share any one of your best experience of Australia.
I truly value and cherish the friendships that I have made over the past decade with my mates from the land down under. Whilst the tourism experiences that they represent are spectacular by themselves, what I’m looking forward to is the opportunity to meet them in person, after almost two years, at our premier global trade event – Australian Tourism Exchange in Sydney during May 2022.
Do you have any tie-ups with airlines and hotels to promote tourism in Australia.
To encourage visitation to Australia, we will be pursuing collaborations with travel partners such as MakeMyTrip, Pick Your Trail, Thomas Cook, SOTC, Kesari Tours, Kulin Kumar Holidays, Travel Tours and Veena World. We are also exploring partnerships with major airlines such as Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Air India and Qantas, in addition to our upcoming Virtual Travel Fair that will offer exclusive airfares for travel into Australia.
Tell us about the upcoming events in Australia for this year.
Australia’s calendar is packed with exciting events year-round, and right around the corner is the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. 2022 also marks an even more exciting year for us, as Australia will be hosting the most anticipated sporting event of the year, the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, from 16th October to 13th November 2022.
Which is your favourite destination in Australia and why?
Australia is a wide and expansive leisure land, where travellers from every age-group and demographic, with varying interests, will be spoilt for choice, from sunny beach days at Sydney’s Bondi Beach and watching the march of the Little Penguins at Phillip Island to the breathtaking Uluru in the Red Center and the Daintree Rainforest in the neighbouring state of Queensland.