ADELAIDE is capturing a slice of the lucrative business market with 86 business events worth more than A$80 million (US$75 million) bagged during the nine months between July 2013 and March 2014.
Events confirmed include Royal Australasian Colleges of Surgeons in 2017 (2,000 pax); two wine industry conferences to be held in 2016 and 2019 (3,000 pax); an international Health Conference in 2016 (700 pax); the 10th Asia Pacific Conference on Clinical Nutrition in 2017 (700 pax); and a national Health Conference in 2015 (800 pax).
A press release from the Adelaide Convention Bureau states that a further 48 events worth another A$83 million are still in the pipeline and will be announced in the next few months.
South Australian Tourism Commission’s destination coordinator, Caitlin Jones, said: “I believe the redevelopment of the Adelaide Convention Centre has been key in attracting all these organisers because it has helped to position us as one of the world’s premier conference centres.”
The A$350 million redevelopment of the convention centre will be done in two stages: the first will expand the existing facility westwards over the railway lines to link with Morphett Street bridge, to be completed later this year; the second, to be finished in 2017, replaces the existing plenary building with a multipurpose, state-of-the-art facility with capacity of up to 3,500 seats.
A key area of interest for Adelaide and South Australia is the health and medical sector. Leon Bignell, South Australia’s tourism minister, said in a press release that the new Royal Adelaide Hospital medical research centre SAHMRI will be an “added draw card” in luring expert conventions to the city.
Highlighting the difference in tourist expenditure, Bignell said business visitors spend on average A$632 per day as opposed to A$179 for a leisure visitor.
To cope with the upcoming influx of visitors, three new hotels, the Quest King William South, the Mayfair and Ibis Adelaide will open later this year, and a A$300 million casino development is underway, which includes plans for a luxury hotel.
