Air India’s proposed direct flight service to Melbourne may help bring in a larger share of Indian travellers to Queensland, an exotic leisure destination.

According to Paul Buggy, International Director of Tourism Queensland for India, Korea and Middle East, Queensland would see an “exponential growth” in the tourist inflow from India, if Air India launches the proposed Delhi-Sydney-Melbourne flight by early next year.

He was attending a road-show by Toursim Queensland, a destination management organisation, here on Wednesday. Tourism Queensland markets tourism of the Australian state of Queensland.

“We are keeping our fingers crossed that they will start the service from next year. If Air India starts that operation, then it will also invest in marketing destinations and that will be good for all of us as it will create a lot of awareness among Indian tourists on Australian destinations,” Buggy said.

It can be recalled that Air India had initially decided to operate a Dreamliner aircraft along the Delhi-Sydney-Melbourne route from October this year. However, it later postponed the plan till early 2013. Currently, there are no direct flights on this route. Ryna Sequeira, Marketing Manager, India, Tourism Queensland, said the coastal state has received 30,000 travellers from India in 2011-12, — nearly 30 per cent over the previous fiscal (23,000).

Sequeira pointed out that the highest number of Indian tourists in Queensland is from north Indian states while around 10 per cent are from the eastern region, including West Bengal.

> ayan.pramanik@thehindu.co.in

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