 Ms DiMascio comes into the hot seat at a time when there is significant concern from the association conference sector that Australia is lagging in the global meetings market, with a significant drop in market share in recent times. She has a strong pedigree in the tourism sector, working for airlines, NSW Tourism and most recently TTF, the peak lobby group for the tourism industry. She discussed the current landscape with Miles Clarke.
Q: How do you view the current international market in terms of competition for Australia’s business events industry?
A: There’s no doubt the landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years. We have excellent infrastructure but challenges in the form of budget carriers, concerns about climate change, corporate social responsibility and countries prepared to spend up big to attract major meetings are all having an impact. Places in our region like Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and parts of China are making massive investments in infrastructure to attract the high yield traffic for meetings.
Q: Has Australia’s response been adequate?
A: There’s no doubt we have some marketing challenges but the industry, through BECA (Business Events Council of Australia), has mounted a significant argument for the Federal Government to invest an additional $21 million a year to position Australia as a world-class business events destination. They’ve presented a powerful economic case as to why this marketing investment is essential.
Q: What’s the current level of funding for your business events unit and how attuned are you to the international market for meetings and events?
A: We receive $4 million a year and we’re working tirelessly in our overseas offices to scope the association sector. Most recently we’ve conducted a series of interviews with CEOs of associations overseas for a detailed qualitative to get the broader view. We need to know more about purchase cycles and how we can improve the bid processes by aligning them with the requirements of these organisations. We need also to better determine the objectives of the meeting, how it relates to the overall mission of the organisation and ensure that we understand the linkages with the broader community and whether business partnerships can be fostered. In today’s market the infrastructure in terms of venues and related services is virtually a given. We need to look to the intellectual property (IP) as well as the infrastructure.
Q: Are you confident we’re delivering on both fronts?
A: One only has to look at the convention centre under construction in Melbourne to see we’re right up with the best of them. The decision to go for the six-star environmental standard was inspired as we’ll have one of the most sustainable convention venues in the world. This is becoming a serious corporate social responsibility issue around the world and the calls for people not to travel long-haul for meetings is a threat that shouldn’t be underestimated. We need good green credentials and to assemble the facts to counter the argument that’s coming out of the UK and Europe.
Q: What do you see as your focus for the next 6-12 months?
A: I’m pleased to say that business events are front and centre at Tourism Australia right now. We don’t know as yet whether there will be any positive outcome to BECA’s well-argued submission for additional funding. In the meantime we are looking to put more focus into research, further develop our industry partnerships; seek to integrate our marketing efforts with the convention bureaux and make sure our presence at trade events is strategic and effective.
We’re continuing for the time being with trade events such TABEE in Asia, IMEX and EIBTM in Europe and IT&ME in Chicago and constantly re-evaluating their benefits. With the international airlines running such high load factors over the past few years, we find it very difficult to obtain seats for marketing purposes. TA has always had good support from Qantas but it is getting harder to get the support we need to bring key decision-makers here for a first-hand experience of what we can offer.
We’d also very much like to see a decision made on whether the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre is extended or a fresh site developed.
Q: What’s been the progress of that direct mail campaign to the corporate meetings and incentive market that was launched with much fanfare in February?
A: We’ve had an excellent and sustained response from the tracking and had a surprisingly large number of recipients registering for the program in the UK and USA. These are both CEOs and intermediaries such as incentive houses and corporate travel specialists. We’ve had the material translated into four Asian languages, so we don’t have the results of the tracking on that region yet, but the signs are good.
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