Twenty-two business event industry representatives from Australia will visit six cities across Asia on a two week mission (12 May to 25 May) to showcase Australiaâ??s capabilities and facilities in hosting world-class business events and as a preferred conference and incentive destination.

Tourism Australiaâ??s international business events marketing arm, Business Events Australia, will lead the Australia delegation, presenting to 400 key corporate buyers and business events agents and encouraging them to choose Australia for their next business event.

Participating Australian delegates include convention bureaux, state tourism organisations, hotels, convention centres and attractions.

â??This road show enables the Australian industry to meet with the Asian business events agents and corporate buyers, giving them the opportunity to present the destination, products and experiences they represent and also allows them to establish direct relationships and business opportunities,â? said Ms Penny Lion, Head of Business Events Australia.

Corporate buyers will have the opportunity to experience a taste of Australia, as the delegation will present their expertise and creativity through a gala event in each city.

Ms Lion reinforced that Asia is one of Australiaâ??s most important and fastest growing markets for business events and that growth is expected to continue across the region, including from China, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

Around 8,000 delegates from Amway China visited Australia in early 2011 and Australia is looking forward to hosting another 4,400 delegates from Amway India in Melbourne in 2012. Melbourne also recently played host to 500 delegates from Asia-Pacific who attended the Intel Solutions Summit 2011, 300 delegates from Indonesia Stock Exchange, and 500 delegates from Prudential Malaysia. Gold Coast was also host to 60 delegates from Canon and Perth was the destination choice for 65 delegates from United Engineers from Singapore last year.

In addition, two leading Taiwanese insurance companies have also confirmed groups of 500 delegates and 700 delegates for Australia later this year.

â??This is a great opportunity for our Australian industry to interact directly with their customers and better understand the culturally diverse Asian region, so they can provide customised solutions to meet the different market needs and establish strong partnerships for their businesses,â? said Mr Johnny Nee, Regional General Manager, North Asia.

â??Our 22 participating business events industry delegates will be presenting 66 itineraries tailored for three different group sizes of 100, 300 to 500, and above 800 delegates to provide our corporate customers and agents a wide range of itineraries to work with – and also a glimpse of what they can experience at their business events in Australia,â? added Mr Nee.

Asia is a strategic growth area for the Australian 2020 Tourism Industry Potential. The Australian tourism industry aims to double overnight visitor expenditure to as much as $140 billion by 2020. Business events visitors to Australia will make an important contribution to this objective, as the Australian business events sector is already worth nearly $8 billion in overnight visitor expenditure. For the year ending December 2010, Australia had a 56% increase in business event arrivals from India, 45% from Singapore, and 26% from China. Indonesia now attracts around 3,600 business event visitors and Malaysia 3,300 and Taiwan 5,300 which represent potential for further growth in 2011 and 2012.