Marnie Craig - BET ARTICLE Tasmania’s business events season in full swing Our role at Business Events Tasmania (BET) is to attract national and international business events to Tasmania. We’re a specialist bidding organisation responsible for marketing Tasmania as a business event destination. In another nod to Tasmania’s growing reputation as a high-quality conference destination, the state will be buzzing with conference delegates over the coming months, with thousands of delegates visiting Tasmanian cities in September, October and November. Hobart will play host to some significant events including the Early Childhood Australia National Conference (1,300 delegates), the Fertility Society of Australia Annual Conference (600 delegates), Association of School Business Administrators National Conference (650 delegates), 2019 Barbershop Harmony Australia Convention (500 delegates) and the Australian Association of Special Education National Conference (330 delegates). Delegates and conference organisers will experience a real ownership of Tasmania’s harbourside capital. The ability to walk with ease from the main conferencing venues to offsite venues, hotels, restaurants and bars will be a stand out for attendees-just one of the many benefits of conferencing in Tasmania. Northern Tasmania is also seeing strong conference activity this quarter with close to two thousand delegates descending on the region to attend business events, many specifically aligned to BET’s Tasmanian Ambassador Program. Events include the Society of Precision Agriculture Australia National Conference, the Australian Truffle Growers Association National Conference and AGM, Ecological Society of Australia National Conference and the Australian Conference for Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Business events travellers, or delegates, are high yielding, spending on average twice as much as a leisure visitor, often extending their visit to Tasmania and returning for a holiday in the future; making them crucial to our local economy. Recently conducted research indicates that on average, business event delegates are staying approximately 6.1 days in Tasmania, with many
conferences, particularly in the agricultural sphere, hosting pre and post conference tours which is again increasing the length of stay of the delegate. Twenty five percent of delegates coming to Tasmania are bringing family or friends with them when they travel to Tasmania for a conference or business event, again increasing the positive impact to local Tasmanian tourism, hospitality and business event suppliers. As Tasmania’s link to the national and international business events market, the team at BET are working hard to continue to drive the demand and capitalise on the opportunities that present for our member businesses. Business event bid activity is currently strong and we are now focussed on converting bids to confirmed business within the association, corporate and incentive travel markets. If you’d like to know more about the business events market and how you can work with BET to secure business in this sector, please get in contact via mail@businesseventstasmania.com or 03 6231 1366.
Marnie Craig CEO, Business Events Tasmania
October 2019 www.tha.asn.au
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