Last week, more than 400 Asian travel agents and Australian tourism businesses descended in Queensland for Corroboree Asia 2018.
Hosted by Tourism Australia in partnership with Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ), Visit Sunshine Coast (VSC) attended the business appointments and training workshops with close to 300 Aussie Specialist travel sellers from key Asian markets (Greater China, Japan, Korea, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore). There was some great quality discussions and opportunity to strengthen their specific product knowledge of the Sunshine Coast.
Following the trade event, two groups of Aussie Specialists from China, Singapore and Malaysia had the opportunity to experience our region first-hand over the weekend with a familiarisation visit. This initiative gives us a unique platform to showcase our visitor experiences to international frontline travel specialists based from our key Asian markets.
Travel agents play an important role in helping tourists decide their next destination. We’re working tirelessly to build the profile of the Sunshine Coast in the key emerging markets of Asia particularly Singapore where our Director of International Marketing is based. Attending Corroboree Asia and hosting the agents helps us do just that and really enhances their ability to promote and sell the Sunshine Coast.
In addition to this key visit by influential Asian agents, we were pleased to partner with TEQ to also host a group of media from seven German outlets over the weekend. Again, experiencing and capturing our attractions for themselves and then creating coverage via publications such as Reise & Preise, Rheinishche Post – just to name a few, is priceless.
Our partnerships with Tourism Australia and TEQ along with the region’s diversity of attractions and events is providing the momentum for international tourism growth across the region.
Most importantly, we continue to drive these activities in parallel and in the lead up to the expansion of the Sunshine Coast Airport runway. People cannot come to a place they have not heard about.
To the year ending March 2018, the Sunshine Coast attracted 307,000 visitors an increase of 6.3% from the year prior. International visitors stay on average 9.7 nights.
