Business Events Australia Greater China Showcase

A total of 37 Australian business events products and destinations will meet with over 70 Chinese incentive agencies and corporate buyers at Tourism Australia’s Business Events Australia Greater China Showcase in Chengdu on 19 and 20 April. “The Business Events Australia Greater China Showcase is a great opportunity to keep top of mind with key incentive agents and corporate buyers, to ensure Australia continues to attract and secure business,” said John O'Sullivan, Tourism Australia Managing Director. “We know Australia is appealing, offering a huge variety in experiences, fresh quality food and wine, unique coastal and aquatic destinations, and service delivery second to none,” said Mr O’Sullivan. Find out more.

Advance Program 2017/18

Applications are open until Friday 7 July for the Advance Program which offers the Australian business events industry an opportunity to leverage Tourism Australia’s international marketing expertise in support of incentive, association or exhibition events.

Trade delegation visits Japan

Australia's Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, the Hon Steven Ciobo MP, is leading a business delegation to Japan this week to pursue new commercial opportunities, promote ‘brand Australia’ and forge new business partnerships. During his visit Minister Ciobo met with tour operator JTB, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways and hosted an event to thank Tourism Australia's partners for their support and congratulate them on their success. Japan is Australia’s sixth largest market for visitor arrivals with 417,000 for the year ending February 2017, up 19%.

Adventurous Australia on show in the US

Australia’s adventurous side was on show to 200 tour operators, wholesalers, travel advisors, media and lifestyle brands at the Adventure Travel Trade Association’s (ATTA) AdventureElevate conference in Idaho last week. Tourism Australia was a sponsor of the conference and has an ongoing partnership with ATTA to grow Australia’s profile in the adventure segment. Tourism Australia’s signature collections, including the new Australian Wildlife Collection, were showcased and Destination New South Wales also attended the event. For more information on Tourism Australia’s global partnership with ATTA contact Sarah Postler.

New guided mountain bike experience in Tasmania

Blue Derby Pods Ride is a new three-day mountain biking tour in north east Tasmania along 100km in the Blue Derby Mountain Bike Trails network. Riders sleep in eco-sensitive pods for two, which feel as if they are levitating above the forest floor.

Six new Aboriginal tourism experiences in NSW

NSW’s Indigenous tourism sector is experiencing phenomenal growth, with a 50 percent increase in participation rates and the opening of six exciting new Aboriginal owned and operated tourism businesses.

Passions III to visit new Reef sites

New diving and snorkelling sites will be accessible on the Great Barrier Reef with the launch of Passions III in Cairns this month. Passions of Paradise has unveiled its 25m reef vessel which was designed and built over three years to be one of the fastest commercial sailing catamarans in Australia.

Dark Mofo 8-21 June

Mona’s winter festival, Dark Mofo, brings centuries-old winter solstice rituals to life across small, intimate exhibitions, performances and large public gatherings around Hobart from 8-21 June.

Walkabout South America

Premium and iconic Australian experiences are being showcased to South American product planners and front line travel sellers this week as part of Tourism Australia’s Walkabout South America roadshow. Fifteen Australian tourism business and destinations are participating in the program which includes workshops, business appointments and networking opportunities in Santiago, Chile; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Air New Zealand is the major roadshow sponsor.

World Travel Market 2017

Seller applications to join the Australia stand at World Travel Market (WTM) 2017 are open until Monday 8 May. WTM, to be held at ExCel in London from 6 to 8 November, attracts over 50,000 travel industry professionals. The event brings travel and tourism's most prominent figures together to network, negotiate, and conduct business.

Conversations with Industry, Tropical North Queensland

Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ) in partnership with Tourism Australia (TA) and Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ) is hosting a free ‘Conversations with Industry -Tropical North Queensland’ event on Thursday 4 May at the Pullman Reef Hotel Casino in Cairns. The forum is part of a series held throughout the state and provides a great opportunity to connect with representatives from TA, TEQ and TTNQ to gain industry insights and discuss the key business areas of marketing, digital, experience development, events and international markets.

Restaurant Australia case study: Drink Tasmania

Tourism Australia is producing a series of videos showcasing tourism businesses from around the country who are great examples of Restaurant Australia. The aim of the videos is to inspire more businesses to get involved in promoting Aussie cuisine as food and wine continues to become an ever more important aspect of the experience international visitors are looking for. Drink Tasmania Premium Tours allow guests to sample the finest of southern Tasmania’s whisky, wine, beer and cider experiences all in one day.

Youth and student travel

The UNTWO's Power of Youth Travel report predicts that by 2020 there will be some 370 million youth travellers. In this recent article on Tnooz, Mike Cleary, global managing director for StudentUniverse, identifies some trends in the youth travel sector and outlines what differentiates it from the wider travel sector. For more research and trends related to international and domestic tourism and travel, visit Tourism Australia’s Insight Files.

Singapore Airlines celebrates 50 years flying Down Under

One of Tourism Australia's longest standing airline partners, Singapore Airlines, marked 50 years of flying to Australia this month. As part of the celebrations every passenger departing on Singapore Airlines from Australia on Wednesday 5 April received a specially designed limited edition box of Margaret River Chocolate Company chocolates as a thank you gift. Since 1967 Singapore Airlines has grown from twice-weekly flights to Perth and Sydney to operating 119 weekly flights to six Australian cities.

Tourism Australia is sponsoring the Australia From Above competition to inspire aerial photographers from around the world to share, enjoy and experience new creative perspectives of Australia.

Tourism Australia has opened a tender process for a full-service market representative to promote Australia in France to provide social content, media hosting, distribution partnerships management and more.

Tropical North Queensland’s Indigenous tourism offerings will be marketed around the world under the new TNQ Indigenous Tourism Brand ‘Timeless Experiences’ with the tagline ‘Sharing our Reef and Rainforest stories’.

Tourism Tropical North Queensland has launched a new Japanese Facebook page targeting the rapidly growing Japanese independent traveller market.

This year’s Santos Tour Down Under injected $56.5 million into South Australia's visitor economy and created the equivalent of 683 full time jobs.

Destination NSW has appointed Barbara Samoilenko as the organisation’s first Business Development Manager for Germany and France.

Northern Territory tourism businesses can now update their marketing material with fresh images for free as part of the NT Government's new Digital Assets Program.