New international research on business events has found Australia is the most exciting destination for conferences. Australia also ranked first for scenery, sight-seeing, and being a destination worth travelling to.
The research found most potential delegates seek some kind of balance between business and leisure, both from the conference and the activities surrounding it.
Respondents said the ideal conference is one that balances professional outcomes with strong destination appeal.
Australia’s Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Steven Ciobo, said this research highlights “the competitive advantages Australia has in business events tourism and gives industry insights on how to make the most of them”.
“There’s nothing like Australia for business events and the Turnbull Government is committed to supporting the sector to grow,” he said.
“By providing industry with in-depth information on delegate behaviour, we are supporting their marketing efforts to be directed to the most effective activities.
“The research was completed by Tourism Australia to assist Australian businesses attract higher delegate numbers to conferences. The research examines the ‘path to purchase’ behaviour of potential international association conference delegates to help industry understand the best channels and messages to use in order to convince them to travel to Australia for their association event.
“Business events travellers are the highest daily yielding of any visitors to Australia and are essential to the growth of the Australian tourism industry. In the year ending March 2016, 479,000 international visitors attended a business event in Australia, spending a total of AUD$3.2 billion,” he said.
The full research, including insights on the timeline of decision making, key considerations and barriers to travel, is available now at www.tourism.australia.com/BEresearch