Australia Next 2024, has just wrapped up in Cairns/Gimuy and it was great to welcome international business events planners and media back to Australia for the second consecutive year. The event saw 80 international business events buyers, 15 media and 96 Australian industry sellers take part in the event's program delivered in partnership with Business Events Cairns & Great Barrier Reef and supported by Singapore Airlines and Qantas. The international buyers and media are also taking part in pre and post familiarisations in destinations around the country.
Last night we made the exciting announcement that Australia Next, will be held for a third consecutive year with the event to return to Melbourne / Narrm in 2025. After having the showcase on pause for four years we think it is important to hold the event in 2023, 2024 and again in 2025 to highlight all the new product on offer around the country and strengthen Australia's pipeline of future international events.
We are already seeing international business events return to Australia, with the latest numbers from Tourism Research Australia showing they contributed $4.6 billion to our visitor economy in the 12 months to March 2024. While the total trip spend is above the levels we experienced in 2019, the number of visitors arriving in Australia for an international business event is at about 75 per cent of what we have seen in the past and we hope hosting Australia Next in Cairns in 2024 and Melbourne in 2025 will help to drive the industry's recovery and future growth.
In other news, last week we had the opportunity to meet with Singapore Airlines' board and executive team. We gave them an update on the bright outlook for inbound tourism and thanked them for their partnership. Singapore Airlines has been a key partner of ours for over 30 years, and their ongoing commitment to Australian tourism is important to us. You may have seen that they recently announced they are the first international airline to confirm flights to Western Sydney Airport set to open in 2026. And they continue to add capacity to existing airports around the country, which is so appreciated by us.
As I've mentioned before we are holding our industry briefings, and we'd love to see you when we head to your region. Details on how to register are below.
Phillipa Harrison
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