The bureau also had its model for calculating delegate spend reviewed by the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies at the University of Adelaide. The university research centre found that delegates are spending an average of $1,165 a day when attending a business event in Adelaide.
“It is extremely pleasing, in my first year as chair, to be able to report on a year of such strong achievement,” said the chair of the Business Events Adelaide board Ian Horne.
“Attracting 174 business events and more than 60,000 delegates to Adelaide – filling city hotels along the way – boosts the state economy and provides an enduring economic tail of meaningful connections and commercial opportunity.”
Horne also explained the reasoning behind the reassessment of the economic impact model for business events delegates.
“Our valuation of business events was groundbreaking when it was first devised but time – and Adelaide – has moved on,” he said.
“There has long been a concern that the economic model has not kept pace with an increase in delegate spend, driven notably by some high-quality additions to Adelaide’s hotel room supply that has increased both demand and the average daily room rate.
“We feel confident that this update to our economic model reflects the true impact of a business event to our state.”
Business Events Adelaide’s CEO, Damien Kitto, said the results were a testament to the “Team Adelaide” approach within the city’s business events ecosystem.
“Adelaide is building a strong reputation as a destination of choice,” said Kitto.
“With the investment in infrastructure – both redeveloped and new hotels, products and experiences – and a strong economic narrative in a range of key industry sectors, Adelaide now offers an enviable blend of big city capability with a boutique, compact feel for business event organisers both domestically and overseas.”
A key event during the last financial year was Adelaide’s hosting of Tourism Australia’s global incentive showcase, Dreamtime – now known as Australia Next. Tourism Australia estimates coverage of the event reached a worldwide audience of 112 million people.
Looking ahead, the state government has provided $14 million over the next four years to the state’s business events subvention fund, with preference to be given to events held during winter.
