New research reveals that Australia’s proactive service style is one of the key assets in attracting international association events to the destination.
Released today at the Asia-Pacific Incentives and Meetings Expo (AIME 2011), the new research shows that Australia’s service culture and high quality conference facilities are ranked very highly among the hosts and organisers of international association events.
It also found that Australia’s leadership across a range of industry sectors leads to events regarded as among the worlds best for professional networking and business development.
The research, undertaken by customer research agency TNS on behalf of Tourism Australia and Australia’s leading convention bureaux and centres, was commissioned as part of the Australia Associations Project (AP) to guide future marketing and communications activities to attract more international events and more international delegates to Australia.
It involved quantitative surveys and in-depth interviews with a range of domestic and international association, academic and industry leaders who influence decisions about where association congresses are held.
The research found that Australia is the first choice destination for hosting major international events, particularly among those who had previously hosted an event here.
All of those interviewed would recommend Australia as a destination to host an international event, with 23% nominating Australia as their first choice, ahead of Singapore (14%), India (9%) and the United States (2%).
Project Manager for the Australia Associations Project, Julie Sheather said Australia ranked higher than other Asia-Pacific countries, Europe and North America for its international leadership in industries relevant to associations, one of the top five factors influencing event destination decision-making.
“Australia’s expertise in areas such as agribusiness/aquaculture, education and training, ICT and clean energy is already helping to attract significant events here,” Ms Sheather said.
“Building on this to ensure that the best of Australian expertise from the government, university and private sectors can be harnessed to support associations staging major events in Australia is a key focus of the project’s work during 2011.”
Ms Sheather said Australia also scored particularly well on some of the measures that matter most to event hosts and delegates.
“Australia was viewed as an appealing destination which is exotic, exciting and unique,” she said. “The appeal of a destination which will help attract delegates was listed most often as a key factor in determining a destination, alongside the quality of conference facilities and accommodation options where Australia also scored highly.”
“But it is the professionalism of the Australian business events industry and our proactive service style which really sets Australia apart from the rest of the world,” Ms Sheather said. “The research shows that the Australian approach is giving event organisers confidence that their business events will be successful.”
Ms Sheather said distance and accessibility continued to be the main restraints to associations considering Australia for the major events, but that experience from a number of events held in 2010 shows that fear is often unwarranted.
“We are reviewing the outcomes of around 20 different international association events held across Australia last year, and are finding that initial fears about the impact of distance on delegates is proving to be unfounded,” Ms Sheather said.
“Reviews finalised to date shows that delegate numbers for events in Australia are exceeding expectations and, in some cases, we are recording record delegate numbers for events on rotation.”
