- Half a million Indian visitors expected to travel to the host nation of the ICC Women and Men’s T20 World Cup in 2020-21 and potentially spend up to AUD 2.5 billion
- Australia’s Minister for Tourism, Simon Birmingham, provided additional funding of AUD 5 million to promote the upcoming World Cups to the fans in India
- ICC and
Tourism Australia aim to make ICC T20 Women’s World Cup the largest sporting spectacles in the world
Australia’s Minister for Tourism, Simon Birmingham, has provided additional funding of AUD 5 million to promote the upcoming World Cups to the fans in India and on the back of its strong marketing game and partnerships, Tourism Australia aims to see additional 1,40,000 Indian visitors in 2020 i.e., 5,00,000 visitors.
“Following the success of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, which was co-hosted by Australia and attracted approximately 1,00,000 international visitors, we are expecting the ICC T20 World Cups to attract an additional 30,000-40,000 Indian visitors to Australia in 2020. This will feed in to our ambitious target of achieving half a million visitor arrivals during the year 2020-21, who will potentially spend up to AUD 2.5 billion (₹12,500 crores) on their Australia trips,” shares Brent Anderson, Regional General Manager, South and SEA, Tourism Australia.
In the last financial year, Tourism Australia recorded 3,82,000 arrivals from India – a 12% increase than 2018. Indian visitors spent AUD 1.8 billion (approximately ₹8,800 crore) on their Australian trips during the year ended June 2019, thereby marking an increase of 17% over the previous year. The average spend per trip for Indian visitors was A$ 5,000 (approx. Rs 250,000).
The visitation from India is currently dominated by the middle-aged affluent segment, however, Anderson is hopeful that the next wave of growth will definitely come from the millennials and Gen Z, for whom travel will be a way of life.
Tourism Australia aims to make its upcoming sporting event the largest sporting spectacle in the world – in line with ICC’s vision – to create a world record for the highest attendance at a women’s sporting fixture at the finals of the ICC T20 Women’s World Cup. The event will be held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with a capacity of 1,00,024 spectators. The previous world record was set in 1999 during the FIFA women’s soccer final in California with 90,185 attendees.
Given the demand anticipated for the World Cups, the ICC has appointed five Official Ticketing Agents and two sub-agents, including Bharata Army, Gainwell Sports, Fanatic Sports, Sports Konnect, Cutting Edge, PickYourTrail, and Medallin Sports, to sell cricket packages in India. The Department of Home Affairs has also introduced online visa lodgement for travellers from India to ease the hassle.
Marketing Plan
To attract more tourists from India during ICC Cricket World Cups, Tourism Australia has also released a 360-degree campaign. Conceptualised by Scarecrow M&C Saatchi, the core idea of the campaign is to draw synergies between India’s most loved sport and signature Australian experiences that define the legendary ‘Australian way of life’, which includes food and drink, nature and wildlife, and aquatic and coastal experiences.
The ICC T20 World Cup campaign will run across three stages - Awareness, Consideration and Booking. In addition to the digital assets and television commercial that has been developed, the campaign will also leverage multiple online mediums to amplify their messaging. A mix of search, display, video, social, native, programmatic and content will be a part of the digital campaign. Content partnerships with broadcast and Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms will also be leveraged as part of the campaign to showcase the tourism experiences through the eyes of renowned cricketing legends from both countries. The campaign will be further amplified during the Australia tour of India in 2020 and the Australian Open 2020, as well as through public relations and international media hosting programs that will see influencers from different fields have a first-hand experience of the game and beyond. Tourism Australia will focus on top 8 cities of India including Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Pune.
Game that Ties the Countries Together
In India, The Indian Premier League has brought cricketers of both the countries together, thereby strengthening the cultural ties between the two nations. Cricket is a celebration that brings people together irrespective of nationality or religion. ‘The India-Australia cricketing ties go way back in 1985’, recalls Anderson.
“Australia hosted the prestigious Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket. Memories of Sunil Gavaskar lifting the Cup and Ravi Shastri driving the Audi on the hallowed turf of the Melbourne Cricket Ground are etched in the minds of die-hard Indian cricket fans. Colored clothing, white cricket balls, magnificent production quality, and the unique commentary style continued to mesmerise Indian viewers, who not only fell in love with the game but also the iconic stadiums such as the MCG, SCG, Adelaide Oval, WACA and GABBA. Since then, Indian fans have continued to visit Australia whenever the Indian cricket team has travelled there or participated in a world championship. The passion for the game of cricket will therefore continue to drive tourism into Australia,” he elaborates.
Key Dates
The women’s tournament will kick off on 21st February when Australia will take on India at Sydney Showground Stadium, with the final to be held on March 8 – International Women’s Day – at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The men’s tournament will run from October 18 to November 15, 2020, with the 45 matches expected to be broadcast to 2 billion people.
The two tournaments will be contested across eight host cities: Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Geelong, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.