“This year is already looking much healthier…and we hope to get that up to 20 per cent,” says head of Business Events Cairns and Great Barrier Reef, Tara Bennett.
Traditionally the region has attracted solid interest from US visitors, but Bennett says the recent growth has come from a variety of sources, including North America, but also China, New Zealand and Singapore.
“We have seen some nice pieces of business that were diverted from other parts of the globe. And so we’re tracking really well.”
Boosted by the 2,800 delegates from Amway Korea over 22 days last November and December, she says the region has also won a range of smaller incentive groups.
Geopolitics has been impacting the region – both positively and negatively.
“We have picked up some nice pieces from Canada, looking to go elsewhere…there’s wins and losses there,” she says, explaining that they lost a good piece of business from USA because of the Bondi shootings.
“They were a Jewish group, so they didn’t feel that coming to Australia was the right thing to do,” she says.
During the Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME) last week, the region picked up an event for April this year, effectively about a 10-week lead time.
Bennett says the bureau had short lead events booked through until November, alongside some of the suppliers on the TNQ stand at the show receiving event enquiries as far out as 2030.
Asked about the 2032 Olympic Games, Bennett had this to say: “We’re looking at it differently, knowing that there’ll be business displaced because of the Olympics in both Gold Coast and Brisbane.
“So we see that more as the opportunity of what we can pick up for Queensland.
“Business that would traditionally go into Brisbane and the Gold Coast, that won’t be available, so we’re developing a strategy on displaced events.”
