PEAKLIFE

By Neha Mehrotra

From the vibrant city life to the quaint seaside, New South Wales is a destination that delivers everything. Sydney is renowned for its laid-back beach culture, cafes, award winning dining, history, heritage and culture. While the state enjoys an extensive coastline along the eastern edge with pristine beaches, there’s an abundance of activities to explore throughout. You can explore the Blue Mountains, the Royal National Park, and the Snowy Mountains, go wine tasting in Hunter Valley, take road trips along the coast, and, of course, do all the surfing, bodyboarding, and ocean frolicking your heart desires. With so much to see and do, the destination has garnered significant growth among Indian tourists, emerging as the fifth largest source of tourist arrivals in NSW.

In an exclusive interview with PEAKLIFE, Samar Chokshi, Country Manager of Destination NSW, delves into the strategies employed to enrich the tourism offerings of New South Wales and shares his vision for its tourism landscape.

1. How important is the Indian market for New South Wales?

Samar Chokshi: India is a high-priority market for both Sydney and New South Wales. It is also the first and fastest market to recover. For the year ended Sep 2023, India is the #5 source market in terms of visitation at 183,500 visitors, which is a growth of 8% over 2019; also #5 for expenditure at $488 million, which is a massive 14% increase over 2019; and #2 for the number of nights stayed at 7,368, which is 97% or pre-covid numbers. Regional dispersal is also important and quite healthy at 14%. Sydney is ranked #1 among the top 20 destinations in Australia.

2. What are some of the unique attractions that have proven to be particularly appealing to Indian tourists?

Samar Chokshi: In Sydney city, the icons—the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge—are the biggest draws, followed closely by the popular Bondi Beach. In regions, the Greater Blue Mountains Area, along-with the Blue Mountains National Park, which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, offer some amazing nature-based activities and sight-seeing options that continue to draw Indian visitors. In addition, the oldest wine producing region in Australia, the Hunter Valley, attracts Indian visitors looking for amazing food and wine experiences, as well as soft adventure activities amongst vineyards. Further north, Port Stephens is very popular; it is home to the largest moving sand mass in the Southern Hemisphere – the Stockton Blight Sand Dunes, where Indian visitors love to ride the dunes on quad bikes and do sandboarding; and it is also regarded as the Dolphin capital of Australia at Nelson Bay, from where the popular activity is a Dolphin watch cruise. Byron Bay, a region close to the northern border of NSW, has also been gaining popularity with well-heeled and upmarket Indian travellers. There are pristine, unspoilt beaches for kilometres, fantastic waves for surfing, stunning boutique accommodation options and a wide variety of local food and shopping to enjoy.

3. Could you share some insights or initiatives to enhance the overall experience for Indian travellers?

Samar Chokshi: Post covid there have been significant changes in the visa product, with longer term, multiple entry visas for both tourists and business travellers and a 3x increase in direct, non-stop flights between India and Sydney. New accommodation and dining options, both Indian and local/international have also grown substantially, catering to a wider variety of palates. There are more and better options to choose from than ever.

4. What steps are you taking to make New South Wales a sustainable destination?

Samar Chokshi: DNSW supports businesses to be more sustainable by offering partner programmes to aid their sustainability journey and developing factsheets and toolkits for the NSW industry on how to create a sustainable experience; for Indian agents and consumers, we have developed content for the same and also trade toolkits about the sustainable and ecotourism experiences visitors can book and enjoy in NSW. We have also partnered with Ecotourim Australia, the nation’s peak body for sustainability and ecotourism, to assist NSW visitor economy businesses on their path to achieving sustainability.

5. Lastly, what’s next?

Samar Chokshi: There’s a lot happening in Sydney and regional NSW all year round. Vivid Sydney, the biggest festival of lights, music, food and ideas, will take place in Sydney between May 24 and June 15, 2024. Beyond that, we are developing new regions for Indian trade and consumers to explore, particularly south of Sydney, like the Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven region, and to the extreme north, Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay, and Tweed Coast as well.

Image Credits: Destination NSW