Selling our destination to the world! Annual Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE)
Posted on April 9th, 2019
Tourism Australia’s Annual Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE), which is Australia’s largest annual travel and tourism business-to-business event, is in Perth celebrating its 40th year this week!
The event brings together Australian tourism businesses, and tourism wholesalers and retailers from around the world through a combination of scheduled business appointments and networking events.
Around 1,500 Australian seller delegates from approximately 550 companies, 650 key buyer delegates from over 30 countries, and 70 international and Australian media attend this global event.
Delegates participate in four (4) solid days of back to back 15 minute appointments which equates to nearly ninety (90) in total! Teamed with networking events throughout the week, this week is key in our annual business to business contracting.
Our Southern Great Barrier Reef Destination is here in force, with nine (9) operator booths from across the Southern Great Barrier Reef assisted by our three regional tourism organisation representatives.
We have grown from less than 10 to 65 tourism “trade ready” products across the entire SGBR destination in the past nine years, which are now contracting with tourism trade (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 Bundaberg Tourism.
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 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 very special thanks to our local operators who are attending this year’s ATE19 event in Perth with their own booth which is a significant investment both financially and in human resources:
- Great Keppel Island Hideaway – Eloise Chaffers
- Empire/Edge Apartment Hotels – Zac Garven
- Pumpkin Island– Laureth Rumble
A number of local accommodation operators are also represented at ATE annually via their Chain Brands, including:
- Central Apartment Group (Rockhampton, Emerald and Gladstone Central Hotels)
- Discovery Parks (Discovery Park – Coolwaters Yeppoon, Rockhampton, Blackwater, Emerald, Biloela, Tannum Sands)
- NRMA Capricorn Yeppoon Holiday Park
- Choice Hotels Asia-Pac (Quality Hotel Regent Rockhampton and Denison Boutique Hotel)
Additional local operators contracted with tourism trade and represented in the SGBR Trade Manual include:- Henderson Park Farm Retreat, Capricorn Caves, Yeppoon Accommodation (Beaches on Lammermoor, Salt, Echelon), Sail Capricornia, Villa Mar Colina, Emus Beach Resort, Freedom Fastcats, Rosslyn Bay Resort, and Takarakka Bush Resort Carnarvon Gorge.
Our local and regional product, combined with product from the Gladstone/Town of 1770/Ages Water and Bundaberg/Bargara 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 19/20 and 20/21 contracting period is looking extremely positive for both our operators and all of our tourism precincts.
