Minister Ciobo promoting Australian BE in America

The Hon Steven Ciobo MP, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment is currently visiting America to promote Australia to key business events stakeholders during the Ultimate Winery Experiences of Australia showcase. This event is part of the Turnbull Government’s ongoing support for the lucrative business events sector. Last month, the Government announced a $12 million Business Events Bid Fund program to attract more global conferences, conventions and exhibitions to Australia to grow our record breaking tourism industry.

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The Beyond Tourism 2020 Steering Committee has called for input as the it develops Australia's next long-term tourism strategy to 2030. The AACB has responded with a paper referencing the following pillars in the context of business events:

• Access development (aviation, visa)
• Driving demand
• Infrastructure investment
• Visitor experience
• Tourism workforce
• Business and product sustainability

AACB's President, Karen Bolinger is a member of the committee.

AACB recently released its latest edition of the Forward Calendar of International Business Events Report, containing an analysis of bids won, lost and bids in the pipeline by its members for the years ahead (from Jan 2018). Business events are unique in that they are
the only tourism sector that provides a vision of confirmed future business. 

361 international business events have been secured by AACB's members, translating to 1,615 event days and 358,035 delegates who will go on to spend almost $1 billion. The top 3 industries attracted are Health Care and Social Assistance (33.5%), Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (18.3%), and Financial and Insurance Services (6.9%).

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The 29th Annual AACB Conference program committee have been hard at work to secure an excellent program addressing the trends and issues facing business events into the future. The conference is set to take place from 12 - 14 August 2018 at the Mantra Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast. Registrations will be opening in May. 

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The business events industry and stakeholders rallied together on 12 April to mark Global Meetings Industry Day (GMID), raising the profile of the industry and its significant value to local economies. AACB established a marketing communications taskforce with its convention bureau members; it's first legacy outcome being a social media activation around GMID.

According to Meetings Mean Business (campaign owner), over 54 million impressions were gained from the hashtag #GMID18 from 8,743 tweets around the world.

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Rosie Douglas has been promoted to the new position of General Manager of Tourism Tropical North Queensland. Rosie will continue to oversee Business Events and will be second in charge to the CEO. Congratulations, Rosie!

Abbey McDonald has been newly appointed to the position of marketing coordinator in the Business Events team.

MEET THE TEAM>

Australian Bureau of Statistics: Year-on-year comparison of visitors arriving to attend a convention/conference for the 12 months to February 2018 shows an overall increase of 25%. There were a total of 19,900 arrivals in February 2018 whose main purpose of coming to Australia was a convention/conference. This translates to a 10% increase from February 2017 (18,100). 

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Applications are now open for the Business Events Australia 2018/19 Advance Program. Tourism Australia’s Advance Program offers the Australian business events industry the opportunity to leverage Tourism Australia’s international marketing expertise in order to grow the number of delegates to confirmed events taking place in Australia, and the number of international business events secured for Australia.

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Tourism Australia is seeking two new superstars to join their Business Events team. Watch this video to see what it's like to work at TA. 

Business Events Partnership Marketing Manager
The Partnership Marketing Manager is responsible for ensuring the application and delivery of general partnership marketing, including the Bid Fund Program and, the Advance Program. MORE>

Business Events Marketing Coordinator
The Business Events Marketing Coordinator is responsible for assisting in the delivery of partnership marketing and distribution activities for the Business Events team and supports the delivery of other projects within the broader Events team. MORE>