A FORWARD PARTY of international event planners arrives in Sydney today as the Business Events Australia Mega Famil Showcase gets underway.
The pre-famil visit comes ahead of a week-long schedule involving more groups that begins with host city partner Business Events Sydney (BESydney). Fifty international planners and media are set to arrive from the Asia region, including Greater China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and Korea.
“Asia is an important region for Australia with more than 316,000 business events visitors from the region travelling to our shores in 2019, contributing AU$1.4 billion in direct expenditure,” said Robin Mack, Tourism Australia’s executive general manager of commercial and Business Events Australia.
“The Business Events Australia Asia Mega Famil Showcase provides the opportunity to bring international planners from Asia to Australia to meet our warm and welcoming people, enjoy our unique and diverse landscapes, and experience first-hand the wealth of new product we have available.”
Mack said Business Events Australia’s teams across its market have secured quality agents to attend the event.
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“We are excited to be hosting a mix of planners, who have previously visited Australia but haven’t experienced our recent infrastructure development, as well as those who will be experiencing our destination for the very first time,” Mack said.
“With the return of two-way quarantine free travel in China earlier this year, we are so pleased to be hosting a strong contingent of planners from the market, highlighting Australia remains a highly desirable destination for business events.”
International planners and media will travel to Sydney on Sunday for the host city component of the programme, delivered in partnership with BESydney. Over the course of three days will receive destination updates from Australian convention bureaux during a business session and experience Sydney.
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BESydney CEO, Lyn Lewis-Smith, said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with Business Events Australia on this initiative so quickly after markets have reopened. These are such important markets for our city and the nation, and we could not be more proud to be able to show key business events decision makers and influencers around our favourite sights, sounds and feel new Sydney experiences so they can help us build demand back as airline capacity returns.
“Sydney is a dynamic, ever-evolving youthful city built on ancient indigenous lands, and that is such an exciting story to share with the world, particularly as we see recent significant investment into the city coming to fruition, including the Sydney Modern opening, redevelopments of Darling Harbour, Sydney Fish Markets [opening 2024] and the new Western Sydney International Airport [in 2026] combined with a new hotel landscape and cool laneway bar precincts taking the celebrations late into the night.”
Main Picture: Aerial view of Sydney featuring Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Source: Tourism Australia
