Asia is certainly where it’s at for the business events industry, and there is even greater potential to attract stronger market share, according to some leading executives.
At the 10th Team Australia Business Events Educational (TABEE) trade mission in Macau in March this year participants were provided with the most up-to-date figures on where business to Australia is coming from in Asia followed by presentations from some key industry players.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2007 Australia welcomed 187,979 participants in conferences/conventions, a 10 per cent increase in comparison to 2006. Of this figure, 65,505 visitors were from Asia – a 26 per cent increase over 2006.
While business tourists grew by 10 per cent, general tourism grew by just two per cent (to 5,644,326).
Tourism Australia’s regional general manager of north Asia, Johnny Nee, told the TABEE group that strong economic growth in Asia, a growth in companies using business events as a performance strategy, and a heightened level of enquiries from sectors including: pharmaceutical, insurance and direct selling, retail, and investment banking were all signs that the business events sector out of Asia was looking buoyant for further growth in 2008.
Mr Nee said Australia has strong appeal because of its perceived safety, diversity, expertise in the business events arena, greater air capacity, and new venues and infrastructure.
He stressed, however, that there was cause for concern on aspects including: increasing competition, the strong Australian dollar, high airport taxes and surcharges, the demand on hotels and venues (and a lack of new hotels), and potentially a slip in service standards because of a shrinking labour market.
India is potentially one of Australia’s largest source markets for business tourists, and its activity as a developing nation is increasing, according to S. Sanjeev from Fullerton India Ltd who was a special guest speaker at TABEE.
Sanjeev said India was booming. The telecommunications sector was growing at an unprecedented rate, as was the airline business which has gone from two carriers five years ago to 15 today. In 2001 there was one life insurance company. In 2008 there are 16.
As the economy and business is booming so too is the potential for the corporate meetings and incentive travel markets. Companies already utilising incentives include banks, insurance companies, mutual funds and asset management companies, automotive, IT and distributors.
Australian companies looking at attracting Indian groups on Australian incentives should highlight two to three “high points” of the trip, particularly experiences that qualifiers may not have seen before. Awards nights are popular, Indian food is a must, and the opportunity for shopping is paramount.
Strengths Sanjeev sees Australia has are that it is an aspirational, premium destination, has world-class infrastructure, friendly and warm people, and no language barriers. Weaknesses are that shopping is expensive, the currency exchange rate is poor, and the cost of travel, particularly relating to air travel, is high. One major threat is the pull of Europe.
Another TABEE presenter, BT&I’s Hanna Seo, gave a presentation on South Korea and its potential for Australia.
Ms Seo said Koreans prefer to use their national airline when travelling (Korea Air), and demand at least one Korean meal per day. Team-building activities are high on their list of priorities, and participants must be made to feel special.
Ms Seo said Australia was considered a medium-haul destination for the incentive market, and any waiving of taxes and visas was highly regarded.
She said the United States was planning to wipe its visas for South Korean travellers in 2009 which would have a considerable impact on visitor numbers from South Korea to North America.
Another guest speaker at TABEE, Peter Chong from China, questioned whether taxes relating to travel to Australia were created “because you really don’t want me [to come]?”
He stressed that websites promoting Australia should be in Chinese.
Tourism Australia’s Richard Beere, the executive general manager international (east) – Japan, Asia, gulf countries, believes there is great potential in Asia for the business events sector citing strong economic growth, corporate profitability, a growth in industry sectors utilising business events for performance improvement, and an increase in RFPs (requests for proposals) as key indicators.
“Increased airline activity, and increased activity by Australia’s convention and visitors’ bureau and industry generally is helping.”
Mr Beere says the landscape of the sector has changed. Where before the sales and promotion department of companies ran everything relating to business events the trend now seems to be that corporate service managers are playing a greater role. Part of this has to do with the company’s corporate social responsibility checklist.
“It’s really becoming serious and formalised,” he explains.
“In Asia they’re starting to ask questions in this area, and it’s ramping up very quickly.”
He said companies interested in the Asian market had to be able to clearly display what they were doing in terms of sustainability if they were to compete effectively on a global scale.
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