rubberman wrote: ↑Mon Oct 21, 2019 2:35 pm
ghs wrote: ↑Sun Oct 20, 2019 1:00 pm
Mate, have you ever thought about the fact that India is a very poor country ? The difference is that Chinese people have the money
to travel on a regular basis. If you can't work out something simple like that then you might as well look at going back to primary school.
There's more US dollar millionaires in India than in New Zealand, and we have plenty of tourists from NZ.
Whether a country overall is poor is irrelevant. It's the number of people who can afford to come here that's relevant. If there are more millionaires in India than NZ, but visitors from India are a fraction, a logical assessment says that it's a lot more complex than a simplistic "India is poor" line.
I'd also point out that there's a lot of flights from the Philippines with even fewer US dollar millionaires, and outside those, like India most people are poor.
Simplistic approaches don't stack up here. We really should be asking ourselves the real reason why we are not getting the tourist traffic from a significant middle and upper middle class demographic in our region.
I'd also point out that if Sydney and Melbourne haven't yet established themselves as tourist destinations for the Indian market, there's an opportunity for Adelaide to fill a gap as a signature destination. However, that would require sophisticated analysis, rather than some throwaway "too poor" line.
ghs, please don't make these uninformed comments. India has plenty of billionaires, millionaires and people in the upper class that will travel. Just give them the right product and they will come.
rubberman, makes good points. I was recently at ITB Asia in Singapore. It's the biggest travel/tourism trade show in Asia, only second behind its parent held in Berlin. It's primarily a B2B show, where business is done between DMCs, tour operators, hotels etc. Australia had no real presence, except for a small motel. Last year Queensland had a few exhibitors, including Daydream Island promoting their 2019 relaunch after the devastation by cyclone Debbie in 2017. India though, had a big presence. If Adelaide and South Australia are serious they need to attend,
ITB India, in April 2020. Indians know Adelaide. The grand majority know us through cricket. Mention the World Cup, India-Pakistan and their eyes light up.
While at the Marhaba Lounge in Changi T3 (substitute lounge for Star Alliance Gold and SQ KrisFlyer Elite Gold members) I happen to speak to an Indian-Australian who works for SANTOS. He's been commuting (for a lack of a word) between SA and India regularly to visit his family back there. He's one who would welcome a direct flight, whether it be Mumbai, Delhi or Bangaluru (Bangalore). Problem is no one will take this on. We've mentioned QANTAS, Air India, IndiGo and Vistara. He was travelling with SQ, basically the airline of choice for those wanting great service between Australia and India. Malaysia Airlines is a lesser of a choice, but it's there as a backup. Air India is of course patronised by Indians (Melbourne and Sydney), but, if they had a choice they'd all fly SQ. Air India service-wise is not there. It is also on the verge of collapse, draining money from the state. When I mentioned Vistara, I got a good response. In fact it's the Indian partner to SIA, Tata Brothers, that inspires Indians to fly with them. Indians have a high regard and respect for this company. We can only hope that at some stage with their acquisition of Boeing 787 aircraft that they'll consider Australian destinations and in particular Adelaide. This may be to the detriment of SQ, that up to now has been a favourite of Indians flying to and from Adelaide. We'll have to see how this pans out in years to come, but in the meantime SA needs to be constantly knocking on their door.
Cheers
Is Adelaide the most diverse commercial airport in Australia? We get A350s, but also BAe 146, Fokker Friendships, Piaggio Avanti, Antonov 124, all sorts of rare aircraft. I never see these types in other cities.