The Minister for Tourism, the Hon. Martin Ferguson AM MP has today opened the 24th Australian Tourism Exchange in Adelaide.
Australia will be looking to grow its $25 billion tourism export industry during the next seven days when it goes on show to 600 tourism companies from around 40 countries at the largest travel trade event in the Southern Hemisphere.
Minister Ferguson said: "ATE is the industry's opportunity to pitch Australia's unique natural landscapes, our indigenous heritage, our vibrant cities and regional centres and our many other tourism experiences to the world's travel buyers. There's nothing like a commercial market place of experience seekers to sell Australia.
"Tourism is a $25 billion export industry for Australia and is 10 percent of our exports. ATE supports the growth of the industry by creating a market place for current buyers to be updated with new products and experiences and new buyers to be sold the benefits of an Australian travel experience.
"During the coming week, 1,700 representatives from across Australia have scheduled over 43,000 fifteen minute business appointments with 600 buyers. This major business event is expected to inject almost $10 million into the South Australian economy.
Minister Ferguson said: "Although overseas buyers have been coming to an Australian trade event since 1979, this year's ATE is especially important to show the world the resilience of the industry and their readiness to write future business. Last year while global travel declined by four percent, Australia's international arrivals remained steady at 5.6 million, which is an outstanding result.
"We stood by the international travel trade by maintaining our presence in international markets during the industry's toughest year. Our strategy worked and now we are seeing positive results - year to date international visitor figures are up six per cent on the same period last year. We have seen strong growth in some of our key markets - seven per cent growth out of China, nine per cent growth out of India, three per cent out of New Zealand and 15 per cent out of Korea. We have seen a small resurgence in the Japanese market of three per cent for the first time since the first quarter in 2005.
"ATE will provide a platform for the industry to build on the support by the Australian Government. In March I launched the new $150 million Tourism Australia global marketing campaign 'There's Nothing Like Australia.' The initial campaign phase saw Australians loading 30,000 images and stories to the web of their favourite holiday experiences. The second phase of the campaign will be launched by Tourism Australia on Monday.
ATE 2010 will run from 29 May to 4 June at the Adelaide Convention Centre. The event is divided into two modules - Eastern and Western - based upon the hemisphere of origin of the international buyer.
The Eastern Hemisphere (Japan, Asia and the Gulf countries) module takes place from 29 May to 31 May 2010 while the Western Hemisphere module (Europe, the Americas, Gulf Countries, Africa, New Zealand and the South Pacific) takes place from 31 May to 4 June 2010.