APEC Shows Australia As Great Business Destination

Australia Showcases Capabilities as a Destination for Business Events

Australia's capabilities as a destination for hosting world-class business events will be showcased to leaders from around the world when the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Summit takes place in Sydney from 2 to 9 September 2007.

APEC is an inter-governmental forum facilitating economic growth and prosperity, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region which brings together leaders from 21 Member nations.

Tourism Australia Managing Director, Geoff Buckley said Australia's hosting of APEC provides an opportunity to raise awareness of Australia's capacity to host major international business meetings and events.

"Australia's hosting of APEC will reinforce and build upon Australia's strong reputation internationally as a destination for staging world-class business events," Mr Buckley said.

"While business will be a focus of the week-long event, we want APEC delegates to take home the message that Australia offers outstanding infrastructure and proven expertise in delivering logistics, security and event operations. This expertise ranges for events as complex as APEC as well as regular association and corporate meetings.

"Throughout 2007, APEC delegates have had the opportunity to experience first-hand our business events capability throughout Australia. This week as world leaders arrive in Sydney for the culmination of the APEC year our Business Events capabilities will be put to the test.

"Australia has a track-record of delivering outstanding major events including the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, the Rugby World Cup and the Commonwealth Games. The APEC Leaders Week is the pinnacle of business events and we are delighted that Sydney is the host city," Mr Buckley said.

Tourism Research Australia data shows that international tourism generated $20.5 billion for the Australian economy in 2006. Business visitors accounted for 16 per cent of all visitors. Over the past 10 years, the number of visitors to Australia for business purposes has grown an average of 4.5 per cent. Of the 5.5 million international visitors who travelled to Australia in 2006 around 823,000 visited Australia for business purposes.

While general business related travel to Australia has increased in recent years, competition between destinations for the business events dollar continues to grow particularly in the major association conferences sector.

Tourism Australia works closely with the Australian convention bureaux, state and regional tourism organisations and government agencies to position Australia as the world's most desirable destination for business events through a global trade marketing program. This month, Tourism Australia will lead a Business Events Exploratory Mission to Taiwan and Korea as part as a major push to grow business events from Asia.

ENDS

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