Tourism Australia rolls out top dog for Test series push into India

Forget Lara Bingle and her bikini. Pat Cummins and a cricket ball are front and centre of a new Australian tourism ad campaign.

After a warm up with David Warner, Tourism Australia is rolling out the big guns in its mission to attract more Indian visitors down under with Australia test cricket captain Pat Cummins to front a new campaign alongside Ruby the Roo.

Titled “Howzat for a holiday?”, a 30 second commercial, billboards and print advertisements will go live in India ahead of the first Test in Perth on Friday and run throughout the series.

As well as a game of beach cricket in Sydney with Cummins and Ruby, the commercial takes viewers to the MCG, Rottnest Island, Kangaroo Island and Cape Tribulation.

It follows on from a social media campaign featuring Warner in the lead up to the Australia v India Test series, targeting the cricket-mad country.

Ruby the Roo was first introduced as a tourism ambassador in 2022, as Australia struggled to re-establish itself as an international destination following 20 months of border closures.

Tourism Minister Don Farrell said “Howzat for a holiday?” would tap into an audience of 50 million or more across India expected to tune into the cricket in Australia.

“The new commercial will screen in India during breaks in play throughout the five Test series and remind Indian travellers there is so much more to see and do in Australia once the summer of cricket is over,” said Senator Farrell.

“Indian travellers are already visiting Australia in record numbers and we expect even more in coming years which is great news for our tourism industry.”

Tourism Australia is aiming to tap into India’s cricket obsession with a new campaign to be rolled out throughout the upcoming Test series.

After overtaking China in 2022 as the world’s most populous country with 1.44 billion people, India has been in Tourism Australia’s sights as a source market of almost endless potential.

TA managing director Phillipa Harrison said the upcoming Test series was the perfect opportunity to get on the “front foot and promote Australia to a captive television audience”.

“The series will attract enormous TV audiences across India and tens of millions of those are high yielding travellers who are in the market for an international holiday,” said Ms Harrison.

“While we have their attention firmly on Australia for the cricket, this is an unmissable chance to encourage those travellers to visit Australia and see what we have to offer as a destination.”

The marketing body’s efforts were aided by strong aviation links between Australia and India with 26 direct flights per week between the countries, up from just eight pre-Covid.

Ms Harrison said the healthy airline capacity would help achieve a forecast doubling in the number of Indians travelling to Australia by 2028.

“It will be a tough Test series for India on the field but we are confident Indian travellers will still want to come and say g’day,” she said.

Cummins said he was excited to be part of the campaign inviting Indian travellers to Australia, and showing what was on offer “beyond the stands”.

In a “behind the scenes” video shot alongside the commercial, Cummins confessed to being a beach rather than bush enthusiast, and a bigger fan of the Daintree than the desert.

“Hitting the surf at my local Sydney beach followed by fish and chips on the sand with my family is one of my favourite Aussie summer pastimes,” said Cummins, a fast bowler who was first appointed Australia’s test captain in 2021.

Overseas arrivals and departures data for September showed India had moved up to be Australia’s fifth largest source of international visitors, after New Zealand, China, the UK and the US.

In the same month last year, India was sixth with Singapore in fifth spot, and ranked at eighth in 2019.

Originally published as Tourism Australia rolls out top dog for Test series push into India