Experience Gold Coast has delivered its largest international business development famil programme to date, leveraging the first-ever Indian Men’s cricket team’s match on the Gold Coast.
The city recently hosted 34 Indian delegates from the entertainment, content creation, travel trade and business events sector, in a bid to strengthen tourism, and business events ties with Australia’s fifth-largest economic partner.
The famil coincided with the fourth T20I Australia v India clash which played out in front of more than 20,000 fans at Gold Coast Stadium – a record crowd for cricket on the Gold Coast. Tens of millions of broadcast viewers across Asia and India are also expected to have tuned in.
Famil attendees were also treated to a showcase of the region’s diversity of experiences including Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Hot Air Ballooning, O’Reilly’s Vineyard and Alpaca Farm, Sea World Helicopters, Rick Shores, and HOTA (Home of the Arts).
In additional to travel and trade, the famil focused on showcasing the Gold Coast’s incentive and delegate experiences to Indian conference organisers. YOT charters, dining at Kirra Beach House, and scenic helicopter transfers to the hinterland were headliners on the itinerary highlighting the city’s capacity to deliver memorable social programmes alongside leading conference facilities.
Experience Gold Coast also partnered with Tourism Australia, Tourism and Events Queensland, to host celebrities from the Indian TV and film industry, and content creators, to promote the Gold Coast as a must-visit Australian holiday destination, sharing their experiences to their collective 50 million social media followers back home.
Experience Gold Coast’s international director, Jason Lucas said India is an important international market for the Gold Coast with enormous further growth potential.
“India is our fifth largest international visitor market, and it’s growing fast – with visitation up 44 per cent year-on-year,” said Lucas.
“By bringing key trade, content and business leaders here during such a high-profile sporting moment, aligned with India’s love of cricket, we’ve positioned the Gold Coast to be front-of-mind for investment, leisure, business events and study opportunities.”
