Tourism Australia has launched a new integrated marketing campaign aimed at corporate meeting and event planners as part of a broader strategy to grow Australia’s high yielding business events sector to as much as A$16 billion by 2020.

Launched at the Asia-Pacific Incentives and Meetings Expo (AIME) 2012 in Melbourne , the campaign comes off the back of strong growth in the business events sector.

The multifaceted and digital campaign, including a new website (www.businessevents.australia.com), follows in the footsteps of Tourism Australia’s consumer marketing campaign, There’s nothing like Australia, and continued strength in business arrivals to Australia. For the first time Tourism Australia will consistently use the campaign positioning for all business events marketing activity.

Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy said business events and business visitation made a significant contribution to Australia’s tourism economy but that there was scope for significant growth long term under Australian tourism’s Tourism 2020 strategy.

“The economic impact of business events in Australia continues to rise with the latest figures from Tourism Research Australia stating delegates for business events contributed around A$8.4 billion in 2010, up from A$7.9 billion in 2009,” Mr McEvoy said.

“On average business events visitors spend 55 per cent more per day than the average visitor at A$212 per delegate per night - so the returns on our investment are strong but what’s more they are also more likely to return for a business and leisure visit to Australia in the future.

“In the year to September 2011, international business visitation rose seven per cent to 898,000, with strong growth from Asia, a critical region as Australia increasingly positions itself for the Asian Century.

“Tourism Australia’s new campaign and its dedicated business events website are about reaching the decision makers for such events with a strong message that Australia is a good place to do business.

“It has been developed based on insights from event planners in key international markets and will roll out in the USA, UK, China, New Zealand, Korea, Singapore and Indonesia, which continue to be core to the business events sector,” Mr McEvoy said.

The campaign aims to demonstrate why There’s nothing like Australia for the corporate meetings and incentives market and also the associations market, featuring some of Australia’s most outstanding events and team-based activities in settings that are unrivalled by other destinations - from dining under the stars in the spectacular outback to activities on World Heritage listed sites.

Mr McEvoy said economic factors in some of Australia’s key markets were continuing to impact on travel to Australia and that the business events sector would be well aided by its new targeted marketing approach.

“It is why the new campaign is so critical in telling the world how Australia can deliver on their business objectives – whether it is incentivising their teams or improving their business performance, and do this with team building activities, experience of our modern cities, unquestioned natural appeal, and great people,”
Mr McEvoy said.

KEY FACTS: Tourism Australia Business Events campaign and website

  Based on There’s nothing like Australia, the campaign targets the corporate meeting, incentives and the associations markets.
  There are two advertisements for the corporate meetings and incentives market – one featuring Sydney and one featuring Uluru.
  Another advertisement has been developed for the associations market and features Melbourne.
  The ads speak directly to the needs of event planners and showcase corporate events in action and were developed following research in four core markets – New Zealand, United States, China and Singapore.
  The advertisements will be rolled out in print and digital format in around 10 countries (including China, Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand).
  The campaign will be supported by the new website – www.businessevents.australia.com
  The website (www.businessevents.australia.com) has been designed as a one stop shop for event planners – making it easy for them to pitch and choose Australia for their clients.  It was developed following research in
  Singapore and the United Kingdom.