The minister for tourism, Martin Ferguson, has welcomed a new $1.8 million three-year partnership to boost the business events sector for Australia. The new partnership between Tourism Australia and the Australian Association of Convention Bureaux aims to build awareness of Australia as a destination for conventions for the lucrative international associations market.
But the meetings industry itself believes it needs the federal government to inject an immediate $20 million into a fund to help organisations bid to host international business events in Australia.
Association meetings bring professionals together to showcase research, offer professional and educational development and networking opportunities.
Minister Ferguson said the new association partnership would help Australia gain further traction internationally as a world-class destination for business events and that it comes at a very important time. Bidding for association meetings occurs up to 10 years before the event is held so building long-term relationships with those involved in the bidding process is critical to achieving results and new business for Australia.
The TA and AACB partnership will see each partner contribute $300,000 per annum for three years.
But some industry experts believe Australia’s lucrative business events industry has reached a fork in the road in its bid for broad-based recognition. The industry needs a new direction to regain the global standing it enjoyed earlier this decade, the Business Events Council of Australia said at a press conference held this week at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
BECA chairman Geoff Donaghy stated that business events had to be assessed on their total contribution to the nation’s wellbeing rather than just what they produced in tourism dollars.
“We talk about our trade fairs, conferences and meetings being worth billions of dollars to the nation – in fact $17.3 billion a year at last count [in 2005],” he said. “But that’s just in what delegates and attendees spend on hotels, meals, entertainment and associated travel expenses.
“The great, untold story is the many billions more these hotspots of knowledge exchange, network building and ideas generation produce in terms of professional development, technological and scientific advancement and, most importantly in Australia’s case, innovation creation and dissemination.”
“We need to somehow put a figure on that before we can even begin to appreciate the real importance of the industry and to arrest an alarming slide that has seen Australia slip from fourth to 14th in the International Congress and Convention Association’s world rankings for international conferences in less than a decade.
“And it is probably no coincidence that during the same period Australia has slipped from fifth to 18th in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index.
“BECA believes Australia, like all countries serious about developing the business events sector, is at a distinct fork in the road in the way we go about our business. For instance, do we continue to rely solely on Tourism Australia delivering government’s offshore promotion role or should we also have Austrade and the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research backing our marketing thrust and supporting our branding and event bids in what is an increasingly competitive marketplace?”
Mr Donaghy said BECA had already called on Canberra to inject an immediate $20 million into a fund to help organisations bid to host international business events in Australia, boost attendance at business events already scheduled in Australia, and enable Tourism Australia to launch a strong overseas campaign to restore Australia’s profile as one of the world’s top 10 business events destinations.
Source: http://accomnews.com/