 Planning an Australian holiday has been made even easier for travellers with the launch of Tourism Australia’s new look travel website – www.australia.com. Tourism Australia managing director, Geoff Buckley, said the travel site is targeted at the new generation of web savvy travellers who are planning and booking their travel online. “The internet has revolutionised how consumers worldwide plan and book travel and Australia is looking to help make the dream of an Australian holiday a reality in the new digital environment,” Mr Buckley said. “In the past six years, the australia.com
site’s audience has grown to 6.7 million users, collectively downloading 40 million pages of Australian destination information annually. Last year 58 per cent of international visitors to Australia used the internet for information before coming to Australia, up from 22 per cent in 2003.”
Event Venues Rotorua in New Zealand has been recognised in the country’s top event marketing awards for its promotion of the launch of the city’s new Energy Events Centre. Event Venues won a runner’s up award for best marketing of a New Zealand event based around the successful weekend of activities that launched the $28 million Energy Events Centre in March. Taranaki’s Womad Festival won the top event marketing award. The Event Industry Awards were staged during the New Zealand Association of Event Professionals’ annual conference in Auckland. Event Venues, sales and marketing manager Diana Moore (pictured above, on the left) said she was over the moon to learn of their commendation. “It’s all the more significant because it’s awarded by our peers in the New Zealand events industry, and we were up against some of the biggest and best in the business. We developed an innovative marketing plan around a very tight budget and we had our work cut out to pull together a multi-faceted marketing program that would capture the imagination of our targeted audiences.” Mrs Moore said it was important from the beginning that the local community embraced the Energy Events Centre, felt proud of it and recognised the huge potential it had to bring economic benefit to the city.
The Gold Coast is expecting a record number of visitors from the Gulf this year and new initiatives in-market and on the Gold Coast will make certain the growth trend continues. Middle East visitation grew by 38.9 per cent last year (March 2006 to March 2007) for Queensland, and surveys suggest the vast majority of last year’s 17,163 travellers visited the Gold Coast. June, July and August is the peak travel period for Middle Eastern tourists to visit the Gold Coast, as they escape their extreme summer temperatures for the temperate Gold Coast winter climate. As one of the highest yielding markets for the Gold Coast, Middle Eastern visitors have by far the longest average length of stay at 38.4 days, an increase of 41 per cent on the previous year (March 2006 to March 2007) and enjoy the Gold Coast’s cosmopolitan precincts, natural landscapes, family-friendly attractions and great shopping and dining. To better cater for the expected influx of UAE visitors, His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Gold Coast City Council and Gold Coast Tourism have established the UAE Lounge in the heart of Surfers Paradise.
Singapore Airlines – the first airline in the world to fly the new Airbus A380 – is preparing for the first commercial flight of the new double-decker jumbo jet, from Singapore to Sydney and return. It will take place in the month of October. And in an unprecedented move, all proceeds from the sale of tickets on the first flight will be donated to select charities, including The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick. In response to requests from people all over the world to be passengers on the first flight, Singapore Airlines will auction the seats on global online marketplace, eBay. Bids will be invited for seats on this history-making flight, and winning bidders will know that every dollar they pay will go to worthwhile charities. All customers will receive a personalised ceremonial certificate confirming they were part of the first-ever commercial A380 flight.
Melbourne Convention + Visitors Bureau (MCVB) and 15 members went on a roadshow in Asia in early August to showcase Melbourne as the real Australian incentive experience. The roadshow visited Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai where key clients in each region spent a morning with some of Melbourne’s premier business event suppliers.
An increased number of exhibitors from the Asia-Pacific region will be exhibiting at this year’s EIBTM (November 27-29) in Barcelona. The China National Tourist Office will exhibit for the first time as will the Vietnam Meeting and Incentive Club. Nepal, Korea and New Zealand are returning to EIBTM and Hong Kong and Thailand have increased their space. “The Asia-Pacific section of EIBTM will this year be an essential reference for planners and buyers,” said exhibition director, Mandy Torrens. “It will provide an essential overview of some of the world’s more unusual destinations. We expect our hosted buyers and visitors to find some interesting and exciting products from these growing and dynamic markets.”
For the very first time the Vietnam Meeting and Incentive Club (VMIC) will take a stand at the event sharing it with Caravelle Hotel. The latest WTTC annual report predicts that Vietnam’s travel and tourism sector (based on a rate of 7.5 per cent) will have the world’s sixth highest growth rate over the next 10 years. Other neighbouring country exhibitors include Laos and Cambodia. Ms Nguyen Thuy Phuong, MICE Manager for Vietnam Airlines (founding member of VMIC) commented: “Recently, Vietnam has been recognised as one of the most appealing destinations for meetings and incentives in Asia-Pacific. By attending EIBTM, we expect to successfully promote Vietnam as a new destination for meetings and incentive groups from European countries.”
Visit www.eibtm.com for further details.
Close to $190 million will be pumped into the New Zealand economy through business tourism following a two-day tradeshow in Auckland. New Zealand’s finest hotels, lodges, venues, caterers and activity and service providers recently showcased themselves at the annual MEETINGS 2007 tradeshow to buyers from New Zealand, Australia, the United States, China, India and Thailand, and were very busy signing up business. “Around $25 million worth of C&I business was booked at the show, with another $164 million planned and well on its way to being realised,” said CEO of Conventions & Incentives New Zealand (CINZ), Alan Trotter. “This year’s show was excellent and the feedback has been fantastic.” MEETINGS 2007 is New Zealand’s only annual C&I tradeshow and offers buyers the chance to talk face-to-face to operators from around the country all under one roof. “It’s a great opportunity to talk to the experts and for them to sign up business, and that’s exactly what the show achieved,” Mr Trotter says.
Visit www.meetings.co.nz.
The Northern Territory of Australia is celebrating the arrival of increased air capacity and carrier competition on a range of domestic routes. Recent announcements will see more than 330,000 additional seats through Darwin, Alice Springs and Ayers Rock annually. From December 1, 2007, Tiger Airways will operate three direct flights per week from Melbourne to Alice Springs, an extra 28,000 seats on the route per year. Qantas will also add four daylight services per week over the peak season and a new morning service from Alice Springs to Darwin three times per week from April to September. Not to be outshone, Jetstar has announced that their Darwin to Melbourne service will offer a daily schedule all year round, offering another 36,800 seats per annum. Manager of the Northern Territory Convention Bureau, Lynn Fairbrass said the increased access from Melbourne, Sydney and Cairns builds on the Northern Territory’s strength as an accessible event destination. “With the Darwin Convention Centre on track to open in July 2008 and Alice Springs Convention Centre breaking records this is indeed good news,” she said.
Senior Ogden IFC executive, Geoff Donaghy (pictured right), has been elected Vice President of the International Association of Congress Centres (AIPC) at its recent annual conference in Graz, Austria. AIPC is Brussels based with membership comprising 154 of the world’s leading convention and exhibition centres across 53 countries. Founded in 1958, AIPC undertakes a wide-ranging program of research, education and lobbying activities. Mr Donaghy, who has been an AIPC director for two years, has CEO responsibility for the Ogden IFC-managed Cairns and Darwin Convention Centres and Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. He is also Chairman of the Business Events Council of Australia, the country’s peak convention and exhibition industry representative body. Mr Edgar Hirt of the Munich International Congress Centre was elected AIPC president replacing Ms Barbara Maple from Vancouver who stepped down after six years in the role. Other elected AIPC directors represent major venues in France, Spain, United Kingdom, Finland and Canada. Ogden IFC is one of the Asia-Pacific’s leading venue management companies. Among the venues it manages are Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Telstra Stadium and Acer Arena in Sydney, the Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin and Kuala Lumpur Convention Centres, the Brisbane and Newcastle Entertainment Centres and the four State Theatres in Perth.
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