Australia promotes for business events

The English-tagline 'Australia: a different light' campaign was launched last year in Australia and has been rolling out in various formats and internationally, with several Asian markets currently seeing launches. General manager, Asia for Tourism Australia Greig McAllan said that shaping the overall brand image of Australia was an essential part of increasing its desirability as a destination for corporate meetings and incentives. "From the centre of Australia to Tasmania and to the Great Barrier reef you have enormous natural diversity that sets Australia apart and defines it as a unique destination. "If you take Singapore with our highest repeat visitorship in the region and compare it to China, one of the most immature markets. Both experience the same natural environment but they touch it in different ways," he said. "For Chinese incentives, they may never have travelled outside the country before. Whereas Singaporeans will want a more interactive experience," McAllan said. Ian Macfarlane, global director, marketing of Tourism Australia, estimated that around half of the US$.9.5m business events promotional budget would be directed towards Asia. According to a recent National Business Events Study in Australia the inbound international component alone generated around US$1.1billion for the Australian economy in 2003 from around 500,000 CEI visitors, Macfarlane noted. "If we look at the incentive market alone, 75 per cent of all inbound Australian business comes from Asia." "We are very serious about maximising our opportunities in the region." "As far as overseas incentives are concerned, we see that southeast Asia alone contributes 41 per cent of revenue," he said.