Sydney’s top business events leaders have embarked on a roadshow of its key markets in Asia in a bid to win new clients and build on existing relationships, with a keen eye on the evolving Indian market.
Business Events Sydney’s (BESydney) CEO Lyn Lewis-Smith arrived in Beijing on Tuesday to meet with agents and corporate clients, and she will head to Guangzhou next week. Meanwhile, bidding general manager Kristian Nicholls is in Tokyo, with trips to Mumbai and New Delhi marked for September.
Nicholls told TTGmice that significant developments are underway in Sydney, such as an A$20 billion (US$13.9 billion) infrastructure project that includes a new airport and potentially 7,000 new hotel rooms.
“The broader picture of Sydney needs to be established in-market,” said Nicholls. “The ultimate for us is to have people get on a plane and come to experience Sydney. We’re very comfortable that once they come in advance of their decision-making process (of booking a destination) that they’ll be sold on Sydney.”
The trips are part of BESydney’s 50th anniversary activities this year, following an anniversary version of a Sydney fam programme in May where groups from China, Japan and India participated.
Nicholls said Sydney has also been experiencing strong growth from India, which is being responded to with a team of specialists that will develop relationships with agents.
“From a relatively low base in the last four or five years in India, we have seen some significant events that have come to Sydney so it’s definitely an interesting factor here.”
“And given the the size of the outbound market and the share that Australia is receiving, there is significant potential for growth in that market and Sydney will lead that growth,” he opined.
