The convention centre’s major expansion and refurbishment, which offers significantly more meeting capacity including a stunning third level banqueting space, opened at the end of last month.
The venue has now launched a virtual tour of the expansion, likely to help put Cairns in contention as an event destination for global organisers as well as those in other parts of Australia.
With a strong technology focus within the expansion delivering a state-of-the-art AV upgrade, the centre now offers an immersive virtual reality site inspection.
“We want to showcase our Centre in person to as many clients as possible, but that is not always possible. The interactive virtual tours allow clients to become immersed in the spaces within the Centre by using headsets or jumping onto our website.”
“We can use headsets at trade shows or clients can experience the Centre in their own time through the website tool.”
Cairns Convention Centre is exhibiting at IMEX America this week in Las Vegas, USA, one of the key international trade events for the business events industry.
“The virtual tours at IMEX Las Vegas will allow event professionals and planners to explore the state-of-the-art facility, showcasing its contemporary design, seamless event delivery systems, and the incorporation of Cairns’ lush tropical rainforest into the centre’s spaces,” said Hamilton.
The centre worked with Tourism Australia to produce the VR site visit tool, through Business Events Australia’s Advance Program, an industry-led partner marketing initiative designed to help grow demand for Australia to host conferences, incentives and corporate meetings.
“We are grateful for the support from Tourism Australia on this project, and we look forward to providing more opportunities to showcase Australian business events opportunities and bring more events and delegates to Cairns,” said Hamilton.
At the Business Events Cairns and Great Barrier Reef showcase in August, head of the region’s convention bureau, Rosie Douglas, said Tropical North Queensland has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels of visitation.
“We’re still coming out of a COVID recovery,” said Douglas.
“For a place like Cairns the international market certainly hasn’t come back but we’re expecting that for the next summer – so the 24/25 summer is when we’re expecting to see a lot more of the international visitors.”
The bureau also offers financial support for events choosing Cairns or Port Douglas, which Douglas says is “tailor made to suit the time of the year” with events rewarded for choosing to meet outside of peak leisure visitor times.
Cairns Convention Centre’s virtual tour is available to experience on the centre’s website.
