Business Events Australia Industry Update

Having trouble reading? View online version 8 February 2021 Business Events Australia Industry Update Welcome to the first edition of Tourism Australia’s fortnightly Business Events Australia industry newsletter for 2021. This year we’ll continue to share updates on our current marketing and distribution activities to grow and support Australia’s business events industry. We’re always keen to hear about what’s happening in our industry so please continue to share your news and updates and contact us with any questions. Latest News What’s in store for 2021 As the pandemic continues, our Business Events Australia (BEA) strategy remains focused on marketing and distribution activity to support both the immediate needs of the industry and nurturing longer-term desirability for Australia as a business events destination internationally. BEA will continue to target incentive events and association meetings in our key international markets; domestically, our soon-to-launch domestic campaign will target a broader cross-section of local business events.  Another wave of domestic research in the works The fourth wave of research into domestic corporate decision-maker attitudes towards restarting business events will be undertaken this week, with results expected to be distributed to industry in early March. If you missed results of the third research wave, released just before Christmas, you can find them on the Business Events Australia website. Australian innovation and COVIDSafe events keep Australia front of mind in key markets The Business Events Australia international media buy continues to create demand for Australia. In the UK, we’ve highlighted the Australian invention for events in the COVID era through a sponsored content piece with CMW and have showcased Australia’s role in the detection of gravitational waves with AMI. In the United States of America, we’ve placed a case study of a 900-attendee Perth event in PCMA’s Convene to demonstrate how COVIDSafe events are being run in Australia. Closer to home, we gave planners in South East Asia a taste of how three of the Luxury Lodges of Australia can be paired with urban destinations and we explored the latest developments in the business events offering at Pt Leo Estate on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula with Meeting Newz in New Zealand. Instagram continues to drive engagement Australia’s business events presence on Instagram is producing good results, with the Business Events Australia (BEA) account continuing to grow, achieving a reach of more than 15 million people with 1,857,249 engagements for the first month of the year. We have recently expanded our content on the platform to include tailored business events “listicle” stories. These offer bite-size inspiration on Instagram with click-throughs to articles on the BEA website to drive planners to add experiences to their wish lists for future incentives. In January we covered a selection of regional restaurants with a place to stay and provided a taste of outdoor event venues around Australia. Other recent Instagram stories which have driven traffic to articles on BEA’s website highlighted a variety of incentive friendly product including some of Australia’s best boutique hotels and rooftop bars suitable for events. Don’t forget to follow us @businesseventsaustralia and tag us with our handle or #meetinaus so we can repost your Australian business events inspiration.  Another business events award win in China The latest business events award win for Tourism Australia in China suggests Australia is well positioned for Chinese business once international border restrictions lift. Tourism Australia has been awarded ‘Most Anticipated Overseas Meeting & Incentive Destination (Long Haul)’ at the China Travel Industry Awards 2020. This is the second business events award win in China since the start of 2021.  Buyers and sellers locked in for BEA’s SSEA Showcase The Business Events Australia virtual event for customers in India and South East Asia will take place from 23-25 February 2021, with up to 60 buyers and 48 Australian industry sellers attending. Australian industry will meet with customers via group appointments in a more informal atmosphere to nurture relationships in preparation for the restart of international incentives when Australia’s international border reopens.  Positive sentiment for Australia Tourism Australia’s Business Events representatives around the world continue to engage with international customers to keep them across the latest developments in Australia and to gather insight into sentiment. In the UK, the team has recently engaged with incentive agents and corporate planners at the Destination Alliance MICE Workshop and C&IT’s Corporate Forum; in the United States of America, Australia was front and centre with North American incentive planners through sponsorship of the Chapter Excellence Awards at the SITE Global Conference; and in China, the team have continued to hold in-person sales calls and host small events for key customers with some future business in discussion. Across all markets, there is positivity for Australia and lead generation, albeit longer term, is in progress. Promising projects amongst second round Advance Program applications An additional 24 partnership proposals were received in the second round of applications for Tourism Australia’s internationally focused Advance Program, which closed at the end of January. With some promising ideas in the mix, successful applicants will be notified by early March 2021, joining the 16 industry-led projects already raising awareness of Australia as a business events destination internationally after securing funding in the first round of applications in June 2020.  australia.com/businessevents Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions | Contact Us To ensure that you continue receiving our emails, please add us to your address book or safe list. Unsubscribe or manage subscriptions Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future emails.