Business Events Australia fast tracks marketing campaigns

Photo caption: BEA's Kelly Maynard, sharing more details about the campaigns at AIME. Photo credit: Adelaine Ng

Tourism Australia’s business events arm, Business Events Australia (BEA), has launched a dual marketing campaign aimed at fast-tracking the recovery of business events tourism both domestically and internationally.

The new brand campaign, targeting BEA’s global key markets in the UK, Europe, North America, South-east Asia, India, and China begins this month, and will encourage business events decision-makers to take their events offline and hold their next event in-person, in Australia.

Photo caption: BEA’s Kelly Maynard, sharing more details about the campaigns at AIME. Photo credit: Adelaine Ng

“We have tailored messaging across the incentive and association sectors,” Kelly Maynard, BEA’s head of distribution development and partnerships told TTGmice.

“The new international brand campaign is part of our recovery and reopening stretch, and we’ve been really keen to start delivering some of the activity we’ve been working on while the borders were closed,” she continued.

Maynard shared that one of the key focuses of the campaign will be fam trips for key decision-makers to experience Australia firsthand, meet with industry players and give them the confidence to quote Australia. Participation at international tradeshows will also play an important role.

“We’re seeing some great leads from all across Asia including Malaysia, Indonesia, and India. We’ve also got some good business from Japan and Korea and when the Chinese border opens we’ve got significant business in the pipeline quoting for 2023 and 2024,” she added.

In the meantime, BEA’s domestic campaign will highlight the benefits of face-to-face meetings as being critical for business success in today’s hybrid working environment. It will be launched across business press, social media, use digital displays, and be supported by a public relations programme.

BEA’s announcement at the Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME) in Melbourne was followed by another announcement by Australian prime minister Scott Morrison of A$60 million (US$44.8 million) in added funding to entice international visitors back to Australia.

A$15 million of that package will go to Tourism Tropical North Queensland, with Morisson citing the destination’s high reliance on international tourism as its reason for financial priority.

Australia’s business events industry contributed A$36 billion annually to the country’s economy before the pandemic hit. Tourism Australia’s International Visitor Survey 2019 also noted that business events visitors spent on average 74 per cent more per night compared to leisure visitors.

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