38th ANNUAL AUSTRALIAN TOURISM EXCHANGE (ATE)
Posted on May 24th, 2017
Two and a half thousand (2,500) sellers and buyers exchanged business at last week’s Tourism Australia’s 38th Annual Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE) in Sydney. Tourism Australia turned 50 at this year’s event.
Our Southern Great Barrier Reef Destination was there in force, with a double booth for our three regional tourism organisation representatives and our tourism trade mentees, as well as a record number of individual SGBR operator booths.
We have grown from less than 10 to 55 tourism “trade ready” products across the entire SGBR destination in the past seven years, which are now contracting with tourism trade (Travel Agents, Wholesalers and Inbound Tour Operators), thanks to the strong commitment, both financially and in human resources, by the three RTO’s of Capricorn Enterprise, GAPDL (Gladstone region) and BNBT (Bundaberg/North Burnett).
Our collective goal is to demonstrate that our destination has sufficient Tourism Products, Service, Experiences (both natural and man-made), consistency and reliability that is required if we expect travel agents, tourism wholesalers and inbound tour operators (ITO’s) to have trust to sell us both domestically and internationally to help build our overnight visitor numbers and visitor expenditure.
From SGBR Islands to our coastal towns and communities, from our cities to our country experiences, our Capricorn region stretching from the Central Highlands to the Keppel Islands, is represented via our collective SGBR Tourism Trade Manual, our quarterly SGBR Trade enews, our annual Trade Mentoring Program (Amanda Kruse, Success Matrix) and our day to day contact with operators and people who sell our destination.
A huge thanks and congratulations to our local operators who have invested and worked in partnership with us over the past six years to help achieve this result.
A very special thanks to those operators who attended this year’s ATE17 event in Sydney which is a significant investment both financially and in human resources:
- Great Keppel Island Hideaway (full booth) – Eloise Chaffers
- Capricorn Caves (half booth) – Amanda Hinton
- Yeppoon Accommodation – Salt, Echelon, Beaches on Lammermoor (half booth) – Kaz Gunther
- Rosslyn Bay Resort (day pass – mentee) – Judy O’Reilly
- Freedom Fastcats (day pass – mentee) – Max Allen Jnr
- Emus Beach Resort (day pass) – Paul Neubecker
A number of local accommodation operators are also represented at ATE annually via their Chain Brands, including:
- Central Apartment Group (Emerald Central Hotel)
- Discovery Parks (Discovery Park – Rockhampton)
- Choice Hotels Asia-Pac (Quality Hotel Regent Rockhampton and Denison Boutique Hotel)
- Accor Hotels Queensland (Travelodge Rockhampton)
Additional local operators contracted with tourism trade and represented in the SGBR Trade Manual include:- Henderson Park Retreat, Pumpkin Island, Sail Capricornia, Villa Mar Colina, Empire & Edge Apartment Hotels, Oshen Apartments, Quest Rockhampton and Takarakka Bush Resort Carnarvon Gorge.
Our local and regional product, combined with product from the Gladstone/Town of 1770/Agnes Water and Bundaberg/Bargara/North Burnett regions creates an incredibly strong Southern Great Barrier Reef story to “tell and sell”.
We have matured as a destination through hard work, partnership and collaboration and the 17/18 and 18/19 contracting period is looking extremely positive for both our operators and all of our tourism precincts.
Also at ATE in Sydney last week, we caught up with Queensland Minister for Tourism, Kate Jones MP, and Shadow Minister for Tourism, Jon Krause MP, as well as Federal Assistant Minister for Tourism, Keith Pitt MP. We also attended the Great Barrier Reef Breakfast to hear from GBRMPA Chairman and Chief Executive, CEO Citizens of the Reef and Managing Director Great Barrier Reef Foundation.
Until next time…..
Mary Carroll
CEO Capricorn Enterprise
