Adam Gilchrist and his son Harry admiring the 'Pinnacles' near Perth
Australian cricket legend, wicket-keeper and batsman Adam Gilchrist and his son Harry are the faces of a new campaign, launched by Western Australia, promoting day trips from Perth to the lucrative Indian tourism market.
In a press statement, Tourism Western Australia says that the campaign is set to encourage Indian visitors to explore the State’s capital and surrounding areas and that it follows record visitor spend of nearly AUD 18 billion (USD 12 billion) in WA by travellers.
The statement adds that in the video, Gilchrist, accompanied by his son Harry, explore a range of attractions in and around the outskirts of Perth. The promotional video has been launched in Mumbai and Delhi from August 19.
On the trips, the pair experienced four-wheel-driving and sandboarding in Lancelin, went stargazing in the Pinnacles, visited wineries in the Swan Valley, enjoyed a dolphin boat cruise in Rockingham and completed the thrilling Vertigo experience at Optus Stadium, where India will take on arch-rivals Australia on November 22 for the first Test of the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The press statement adds that the adventures experienced by Gilchrist and his son have been compiled into videos and photos for Indian social media and Cricbuzz, one of the most popular mobile apps for cricket news and scores with over 50 million users and monthly traffic of nearly 400 million.
Tourism Western Australia says that the campaign will also feature on large billboards in Mumbai and Delhi, and direct people to accommodation, tourism experiences and partner deals with Indian travel agency Thomas Cook and Skyscanner which will offer packages to Perth.
It adds that India is a priority tourism market for Western Australia with a total of 34,000 visitors arriving in WA and spending AUD 128 million in year ending March 2024. India has leapt to become Western Australia’s seventh largest market from 11th largest in 2019, with the accelerated growth indicating surging demand from Indian visitors, driven by a large Indian community in WA of approximately 61,000 residents, including around 9,600 international students.
The tourism promotion body says that the new India campaign is a market-specific iteration of the successful global road trips campaign Drive the Dream, which launched in September 2023 and features Perth-born Formula 1 star Daniel Ricciardo exploring Australia’s Coral Coast with his best mate. This campaign has reached over 136 million people.
It adds that both iterations of the Drive the Dream campaign align with the State’s destination brand, Walking On A Dream. The campaign follows the recent release of figures from Tourism Australia, which showed WA outperformed all other Australian States in total visitor spend compared to 2019, with a record AUD 17.9 billion spend by travellers in the year ending March 2024.
Rita Saffioti
“Adam Gilchrist is not only an Australian cricket legend, he is a national treasure and we are so excited to have him as part of this campaign promoting his home state to India, particularly given he is a household name over there as well. India is certainly a priority tourism market for us, and our strong and proud Indian community in WA has no doubt had a big influence on the fast-increasing visitor numbers, with people coming to visit family and friends in WA,’’ says Rita Saffioti, Tourism Minister, Western Australia.
“We are hoping this campaign will encourage those people in India to come out to WA to visit relatives or grab some mates and book their tickets to ‘The West Test’ in November, and then go on to enjoy the easily accessible day trips Adam and his son Harry enjoyed,’’ Saffioti adds.
“This campaign, along with other iterations of Drive the Dream with Daniel Ricciardo and our overarching Walking On A Dream brand, play a really important role in revitalising our visitor economy and putting WA on the map as a sought-after tourism destination,’’ she says.