New Silkair Darwin Service to Boost Top End Tourism

SilkAi

The launch by SilkAir of its new Singapore-Darwin service - the first venture into Australia by the regional wing of Singapore Airlines - has been hailed as a welcome tourism boost for the Top End by Tourism Australia Managing Director, Andrew McEvoy.

The four-times-per-week service features the reintroduction of international business class into and out of Darwin, which Mr McEvoy believes will help tourism operators in the Territory tap into the fast-growing markets of Asia and the region's increasing affluent travellers.

"The emergence of SilkAir onto the Asian Pacific aviation landscape brings more competition, more choice and, importantly, new air connections, with the high quality carrier offering up to 38 Asian cities beyond its Singapore base, including in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and India," Mr McEvoy said.

"The new service represents a significant increase in capacity between Singapore and Darwin and the new premium service , particularly the availability of business class seating, should also help open up new audiences."

Mr McEvoy believes SilkAir's connections into Darwin, through its Singapore hub, will also better link Top End Australia into the wider Asia region, as well as create better access from the UK and Europe.

"This new route shouldn't be seen in isolation, it will also feed new traffic from the world's fastest growing aviation market of Asia," Mr McEvoy said.

Mr McEvoy also pointed to the recent alliance between Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia as another key tourism driver, which he believes will open up a range of convenient onward connections within Australia to further benefit regional tourism.

Andrew McEvoy.

"SilkAir's decision to make Darwin its inaugural Australian destination is a massive boost which I'm sure will be warmly welcomed by operators across the Territory and, more broadly by the industry, as Australian tourism transitions into this Asian Century," he said.

There were 318,500 visitors from Singapore during 2011, up 3.4 per cent on 2010. Singapore's value to Australian tourism rose five per cent to A$1.3 billion in 2011. Tourism Australia believes that the market has the potential to grow to between A$2.3 billion and A$2.8 billion in total expenditure by 2020.