Page 4295 - Week 12 - Thursday, 24 October 2019
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discussion was broad ranging as we discussed issues such as the administrative arrangements with the national government, education and teacher quality, improving wellbeing, hospitals and health provision as well as infrastructure.
The discussion on education particularly focused on teacher quality and training and the Delhi Chief Minister’s desire for Delhi to be a hub of world-class teaching and training. The meeting was very productive. Of course, when you can get past the difference in scale, there is much that the ACT has to offer to Delhi in its quest to lift their educational standards. We also met with the Association of Australian Education Representatives in India. This meeting was particularly useful as it allowed us to openly discuss the actual practicalities of students from India coming to Australia, and to Canberra in particular.
The importance of India as a source of international tourists also cannot be understated. India is the ACT’s fourth largest market for international tourists, providing 7.1 per cent of total international visitors to Canberra with visitors growing by 31 per cent in the year to June 2019. To build on this momentum we met with the Tourism Australia India market representative to discuss the potential and the opportunities that exist. I am pleased to advise the Assembly that VisitCanberra and Tourism Australia are working closely together and will work even more closely in the future.
Meetings were also held with two airlines during the mission. Firstly, we met with the Singapore Airlines general manager for India to discuss how we can cooperate further to increase visitors from India to Canberra flying on Singapore Airlines. VisitCanberra and Singapore Airlines currently undertake cooperative marketing into the region, and we signalled a desire to undertake additional marketing partnerships.
Secondly, the Commissioner for International Engagement also met with Vistara airline. Vistara is a new full-service airline that commenced operations in January 2015. It is jointly owned by the Indian Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines. In August this year, they commenced international operations between Delhi and Singapore and intend to grow their international routes.
Their alliance with Singapore Airlines, linked with their established domestic routes, offers further opportunity in the Indian market by transiting through Singapore directly into Canberra. We also participated in a tourism roundtable with a group of Indian travel agents who specialise in the Australian market. We were able to inform them of the maturing of the Canberra market, the growth and diversity of our hotel offerings and activities in the Canberra region. The unique insights they provided on various sectors they work in will help us develop new strategies to grow leisure, business and education-related visitation.
We also held a tourism investor roundtable in Delhi with 16 investors. This allowed us to familiarise investors with Canberra and our city’s tourism economy. It was a lively discussion ranging from the nature of the market, foreign investment rules, the availability of historic buildings for reuse and how land is brought to market in the ACT.
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