The economic impact of business events confirmed by the Business Events Cairns & Great Barrier Reef team in the 2017-18 financial year has more than doubled to $111 million.
Securing Amway China, which will bring more than 6000 delegates to our region in April 2019, helped boost the value of these events from a $45 million economic impact the previous year. It is one of 54 confirmed events, up from 45 in 2016-17.
The number of leads was up by nine to 97 which includes 17 from China and reflects the growing interest in the destination following the confirmation of Amway.
There is a good spread between state, national and international business which is consistent with previous years and the domestic conference market continues to be strong for the region. About 66 per cent of the business is conference, which is also on par with previous years.
These strong results come on the back of solid work by the Business Events Cairns & Great Barrier Reef team led by TTNQ General Manager Rosie Douglas.
In the past month 25 members joined Rosie in Guangzhou for a Business Events training workshop and VIP Dinner to showcase the business events offering in our region. Rosie also partnered with leading agency CTYS MICE to host 19 of their top corporate clients for a two-day destination showcase where they were educated on the diverse incentive offering in our region.
Last week Business Development Manager Eleanor Wilkie was joined by Business Events Port Douglas at Convene Q in Brisbane where they met with buyers from across Australia and New Zealand.
Next week the team and 19 members will give market updates at hosted lunches in Melbourne and Sydney.
More China trade activity will be undertaken in the next few months starting with the opportunity to present to the top 20 clients of New View in Shenzhen in September before the Business Events Australia Greater China Showcase in November. Our destination will host a post Showcase education program.
Rosie will head to IMEX America in October and the whole team will be involved in Sell TNQ in November as well as Eleanor attending the Pacific Area Incentives and Conferences Expo (PAICE) in Auckland, also in November.
Business events target the high-value traveller we want to attract to our region as part of our strategy to achieve $3.5 billion in expenditure by 2020.
Regards
Pip Close
Chief Executive Officer