Western Australia will soon have a direct flight to India.
The state government is negotiating with an Indian airline to get a non-stop flight to Australia and vice-versa.
State government ministers will fly to India in the coming months to lobby local airlines.
Mr Papalia pointed out to the strong international student market in India and said there's great opportunity there.
"We're lagging sadly in our international student market," he said.
"The biggest source of international students for Perth is India."
While international students are one reason, Western Australia experienced a 30% increase in Indian visitors in the year to September 2017.
In addition to this, almost 50,000 people born in India live in Western Australia according to Census 2016.
Member of Indian community in Perth have welcomed the move.
Source: Supplied - ISWA
Perth-based Gurpreet Mangat told SBS Hindi that a direct service to India makes it easier for people who are old and who travel with kids.
“This will reduce our travel time as we will reach Delhi or Mumbai much quicker. No need to waste time in Singapore, KL or Bangkok anymore.
“It will make it easy as we travel with kids. I have 2 kids and it is very hard for me to change flights or wait at the airport.
“And it also makes it easy for my parents who live in Delhi as whenever they come here they hate changing flights,” he says.
In February, SBS Hindi reported that Air India was planning to increase the frequency of their direct flights from New Delhi to Sydney and Melbourne.
