Tourism Australia Marketplace Europe/UK a great success!
Posted on November 18th, 2020
Thirty quality appointments with key Europe and UK tourism trade partners were held over three nights from 6pm to 10pm each night last week by Capricorn Enterprise CEO Mary Carroll on behalf of our Capricorn Southern Great Barrier Reef destination.
Australia Marketplace Online – UK & Europe was the virtual solution for Tourism Australia’s physical Australia Marketplace UK & Europe event, which provided an opportunity for representatives from the Australian tourism industry to establish and maintain business relationships with key qualified travel agencies and tour operators from across UK & Europe.
The event was an impressive fully virtual and interactive exhibition and networking experience which allowed buyers to browse a virtual exhibition of Australian sellers as well as conduct 1:1 business appointments of 10 minutes each.
Capricorn Enterprise CEO Mary Carroll said “it was fantastic connecting with our industry friends in face to face appointments for the first time in a year. It’s critically important to continue to promote our destination to overseas tourism trade, because when those international borders do open, the natural attributes and boutique experiences in our Southern Great Barrier Reef destination are high on the agenda of international travellers.”
“Bookings from overseas visitors are made between nine and twelve months in advance, so we must keep our competitive edge against strong competition not just within Queensland and Australia, but other appealing global destinations.”
“Whilst international visitors make up about 10% of our destinations’ total visitation, some of our boutique operators were receiving up to 40% international visitors to their businesses pre-covid, so they’ve had to pivot quickly to survive with increased domestic visitors.”
“We have worked very hard over the past decade with our Regional Tourism Organisation partners, TEQ, Tourism Australia and of course our local operators to grow our portfolio of tourism trade ready product.”
“The follow up to the one on one appointments is key and it’s wonderful to be able to send trade training videos, our trade manual and other tools to assist our international wholesalers to easily promote and sell our destination.”
