Business events are a high yielding sector of the tourism industry and include association meetings, incentive travel, corporate meetings, conventions and exhibitions. The International Visitors Surveyand National Visitors Survey record healthy levels of expenditure by business visitors. In 2003, expenditure for business travel totalled $11 billion, including $1.29 billion for international travellers. In the same year, the National Business Events Study estimated that all business events yielded a total expenditure of $17.36 billion in Australia. International business event delegates were also found to spend an average of $554 per day compared with $94 by leisure tourists, and $3526 per trip compared with $2569.
The tourism industry stands to benefit from sustained growth in business events. The Australian Government through Tourism Australia (TA) and the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism (RET) seeks to capitalise on Australia's advantages and build sustainability in the business events sector over the longer term. To achieve this, the Minister for Tourism, the Hon Martin Ferguson AM MP has established a Working Group comprising representatives from industry and government to develop a Business Events Strategy (BES).
Download the Working Group Members Table
[PDF, 21kb]
A Sub-Group of the Working Group has been established to develop the BES and includes some members of the Working Group plus:
- Karl Flowers from Tourism Australia
- Caroline Wilkie, National Manager, Tourism and Major Events, Tourism and Transport Forum.
The activities of the Working Group are guided by the following extract from the Terms of Reference which were agreed at the 19 May meeting of the Sub-Group:
Aim
The aim of the Business Events Working Group (the Group) is to deliver a draft national business events strategy. The strategy will be considered by the Minister for Tourism.
Objective
The objectives of the business events strategy are to:
- identify the impediments to, and opportunities for growth
- identify actions to address the impediments and realise the opportunities
- identify the appropriate groups/organisations (private/public sector - Federal, State of local government) to undertake these activities
- deliver the Business Events Strategy to the Minister for Tourism by October 2008.
Issues for Consideration
The Working Group will consider the following issues in the development of the business events strategy:
- Australia's current performance in the global and regional (Asia Pacific) business events market and trends over the past five years in each of the key sub-sectors of corporate meetings; association meetings/congresses; exhibitions; incentives; and Government/NGO meeting.
- The current and potential contribution of each sub-sector and business events to tourism in Australia.
- A SWOT analysis of business events in Australia with special emphasis on Australia's capabilities to supply world-class, competitive business events infrastructure, training, access and other supply and demand-side issues must be considered.
- Realistic and achievable objectives/goals/targets for the business events sector.
- Appropriate and cost-effective strategies, including timeline, for achieving these objectives, goals and targets.
- Resource requirements and funding to implement the strategy.
Strategies and Deliverables
In developing the business events strategy, the Working Group should seek input from all key stakeholders. This may be in the form of interview, consultations and discussions. The key deliverable will be a strategy that will guide the development of the business events industry and assist it to maximise its economic potential. The strategy will be a key input to the National Tourism Strategy and will address the above issues and outline opportunities for improving Australia's performance in business events in both the international and domestic markets with a key focus on supply-side issues and taking into account demand-side issues.