T20 World Cup came at a perfect time for us to showcase Melbourne, says Visit Victoria CEO Brendan McClements-Sports News , Firstpost

Aryna Sabalenka , right, of Belarus plays a backhand return to Storm Sanders of Australia during their first round match on Rod Laver Arena at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Hamish Blair)

Tourism sector was one of the worst hit in Australia during COVID-19 as the country locked its borders and imposed a strict and lengthy lockdown. Slowly, but surely, the borders have reopened and tourism activities have returned to full swing.

Sports continues to play a major role in driving tourism back to Australia. Melbourne, Victoria in particular. A well-contested T20 World Cup, featuring the blockbuster India-Pakistan clash at the MCG, has played its part and now it’s over to the upcoming Australian Open and the Australian Grand Prix to sustain the momentum.

In an exclusive chat with Firstpost.com, Visit Victoria’s CEO Brendan McClements talks about the challenge of bringing people back to Melbourne and Victoria and the road ahead. Excerpts:

How difficult was it getting people back to Australia?

We obviously went through challenging time but this whole year we have been giving people reasons to come back to Melbourne and Victoria. Cricket World Cup was there, we had tennis at start of the year. So we have given people reasons to drop that reluctance. I think aviation capacity is the biggest challenge for now. Flights are full and it’s difficult to get flights to Australia. The big challenge right now is not people wanting to come here, it’s about people not being able to get on a plane to get here.

Once you are here, you obviously have enough reasons to be interested.

Oh yeah. What we have seen there is a great appetite among people to travel. As soon as they travel, they want to travel again. We are confident that if we can deal with those capacity issues, we will see a fantastic future.

Brendan McClements, CEO of Visit Victoria.

Cricket World Cup couldn’t have been timed better for revival of tourism in Australia, right?

Cricket World Cup came at a perfect time for us to showcase Melbourne and Victoria to the world, to India in particular. And we have seen a fantastic response. Tens of thousands of Indians have travelled for the World Cup, so as the world comes back to us, India is very important part of our relationship. And this was an ideal starting point for us to reintroduce Melbourne and Victoria to the market of people.

There is a lot of cultural diversity on display in Melbourne. You think that could help play a part when you look at reviving tourism in the country overall?

We are proud of the multicultural nature of Melbourne. More than 200,000 Indians chose to make Melbourne their home. Really strong connections people to people here. So many students prefer to study here, so I think it’s a really embracing place. So there can be no place better than Melbourne to start your journey in Australia.

And there’s more to see in Melbourne than just the rich sporting culture.

Absolutely yes. We are proud of our sporting culture but we also have a wonderful food culture, art culture and we are close to natural wildlife. So If you want to come to a place which has great urban experience and also experience Australian kangaroos, which is not far away, then Melbourne is the place for you. For Indian tourists, it’s the perfect location. So come to Melbourne is my message for everyone out there.

(The writer was in Melbourne on invite of Visit Victoria)

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