Brand Ambassador of Australia Tourism

Tourism Australia — the Australian government’s destination marketing organisation responsible for attracting international visitors to Australia — operates one of the world’s most sophisticated destination marketing programmes, built around the globally celebrated Come and Say G’day campaign that has animated the brand’s Ruby the Souvenir Kangaroo mascot as an international tourism icon. For the Indian market — which has grown to become Australia’s fifth-largest inbound tourism source by arrivals and generated 2.7 billion Australian dollars in visitor expenditure in the year to March 2025, a 14% increase on the previous year — Tourism Australia made a landmark ambassador appointment in August 2025: Sara Tendulkar, daughter of cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, as the India-specific face of the Come and Say G’day campaign’s second chapter.

Tourism Australia India Campaign Ambassador — Key Details

Sara Tendulkar — Tourism Australia’s India Ambassador

Tourism Australia’s announcement of Sara Tendulkar as the India-specific ambassador for the Come and Say G’day campaign on August 20, 2025 represented a strategically considered and commercially precise choice — bringing together a personality with deep personal connections to Australia through genuine visits and cherished experiences with a destination marketing campaign that specifically required someone who could speak about Australia with authentic emotional conviction rather than scripted promotional enthusiasm.

Tourism Australia Chief Marketing Officer Susan Coghill articulated the selection logic with clarity in the announcement — noting that Ruby the Souvenir Kangaroo has become the global campaign star but that connecting specifically with Indian travellers required local talent with a genuine personal relationship to Australia. Sara Tendulkar fits this requirement precisely — she has visited Australia multiple times with her family, has genuine memories of Australian experiences ranging from its wildlife and landscapes to its food culture and coastal environments, and her expressions of enthusiasm for the destination carry the credibility of a person who chooses Australia as a personal travel preference rather than a person paid to recommend it commercially.

Sara’s identity as a local entrepreneur and philanthropist — described in the official Tourism Australia announcement in these precise terms rather than as Sachin Tendulkar’s daughter — signals the campaign’s intent to position her as a credible voice in her own right rather than leveraging purely derivative celebrity from her father’s name. Her social media presence among young Indian women, her visible lifestyle choices that resonate with the aspiration-and-travel culture of India’s urban millennials and Gen Z, and her genuine warmth make her ambassadorship feel personal rather than promotional.

Nishant Kashikar, Country Manager for India and Gulf at Tourism Australia, noted a significant strategic evolution in the campaign approach — explaining that while Tourism Australia campaigns have traditionally featured a single global face across all markets, the Come and Say G’day second chapter approach works with people who genuinely love Australia and can share that passion in ways that feel real and authentic to audiences in specific cultural contexts. This market-specific authenticity model — different ambassadors for India, USA, UK, China, Japan — reflects Tourism Australia’s recognition that India’s tourism consideration landscape is shaped by specifically Indian cultural references, family travel patterns, safety considerations, and aspirational narratives that a single global celebrity face cannot optimally address for every market simultaneously.

Ruby the Souvenir Kangaroo — The Global Mascot Partnership

Sara Tendulkar’s ambassadorship operates in creative partnership with Ruby the Souvenir Kangaroo — the animated Kangaroo character who has become Tourism Australia’s global campaign star and whose adventures across Australian destinations create the whimsical, universally accessible entry point that the Come and Say G’day platform was built around. The pairing of Sara’s human relatability and Indian cultural resonance with Ruby’s playful animated energy maintains campaign continuity for global audiences who have encountered previous chapters while creating something distinctively India-nuanced for the Indian market.

Australia’s Global Come and Say G’day Ambassador Network

Tourism Australia’s decision to invest specifically in Sara Tendulkar as the India ambassador reflects the strategic importance of the Indian market to Australia’s tourism ambitions — with 450,000 Indian visitors already arriving annually and both arrival numbers and spending growing significantly year-on-year, India represents one of Australia’s most commercially important tourism source markets for the coming decade, particularly as air connectivity between India and Australia continues to improve and India’s outbound travel market expands with rising incomes and changing lifestyle preferences among the world’s most populous country’s ambitious young population.