**Check against delivery
Ladies and gentlemen,
It's a pleasure to be here in my home State at this important Meeting and Events National Conference.
Meetings and events are a very important part of the tourism industry in Australia and Melbourne is one of our premier cities for hosting them.
Tonight, we are meeting in Australia newest, largest and only 6 star energy rated Convention and Exhibition Centre.
It is already an outstanding success - there are almost 400,000 delegates due to meet here via more than 400 booked domestic and international business events over the coming years.
Given the average business traveller spends 45 per cent more than other travellers it's not hard to see where the value is in this sector.
Last year the global financial crisis reduced travel in this sector by 9 per cent.
As companies sought to tighten budgets - business travel was one of their first targets.
Despite this, across the board Australia's tourism industry fared better than most.
The decision by the Australian Government and Tourism Australia to maintain a presence in international markets paid off - visitor arrivals held up at 5.6 million in 2009 - the same as the previous year.
And the signs of recovery for your sector have started to emerge.
As companies grew more positive about the economic outlook, business arrivals rose in December last year for the second month in a row.
The good news is that confidence is returning.
And the Australian Government is putting the right settings in place to help the business events sector make the most of the economic upswing.
Australian Governments will spend almost $65 million dollars this year promoting business events.
As a result of the $20 million partnership between Tourism Australia and industry - announced in January this year - almost $8 million dollars will be spent on promoting business events to the lucrative international associations and incentives travel markets.
Funding for business events marketing will also boost delegate numbers at conventions in major cities, promote regional meeting venues in Victoria, New South Wales and Far North Queensland, and promote business events in Perth, the Northern Territory, Whitsundays and Tasmania.
Internationally - Asia is at the forefront of our marketing.
Tourism Australia's largest pitch for business events happened in Beijing recently, bringing Australian sellers together with Asian buyers.
In June, Tourism Australia will host Asian buyers and business leaders at Australia's stand during the World Expo in Shanghai.
In Europe, we'll be on the ground at IMEX (the worldwide exhibition of incentive travel, meetings and events) in Frankfurt re-enforcing the message that Australia has world-class conference opportunities.
And we'll be welcoming international buyers from each of our major international markets to see the advantages first-hand.
The Australian Government has also invested $20 million in the Brand Australia initiative led by Austrade - specifically designed to broaden the image of Australia internationally.
This includes a stronger emphasis on Australia's position as an international business destination.
There is no doubt we have a great story to tell.
Australia's world class meeting venues and our capacity to host international events is proven, and of course, we are without question, one of the safest destinations for business travel and major events in the world.
In the past ten years, we've successfully hosted:
- The Commonwealth Games in 2006
- The APEC Leaders Summit in 2007
- The Rugby World Cup in 2003
- One World Youth Day in 2008
- Annual Formula One grand prix events
- One of the best Grand Slam tennis tournaments every year
- And one of the finest Olympic Games in history in 2000
We will host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 2011 and my Deputy Secretary is in Algeria bidding for the 18th International LNG Conference in 2016 - a triennial global event bringing together gas sellers and buyers from around the world.
The resurgence of the resources sector, including LNG, is also very important to business travel and the meeting and events sector.
And as I travel around Australia I see first hand the impact this is having on tourism - airports such as Perth and Canberra are expanding and hotel occupancy and yield is improving.
We will continue to see the tourism industry ebb and flow with the economy.
The challenge for us is to not make the mistakes of the past and make sure we focus on the supply side issues.
That is why in December last year I launched the National Long Term Tourism Strategy.
We're meeting today at a precinct where the public and private sector collectively invested more than $1.4 billion including a new Hilton Hotel.
Through the Strategy we would like to see more of this investment around Australia.
The Strategy seeks to remove barriers to investment in hotels by making them as competitive as a manufacturing facility, an office block or apartments.
The Strategy also puts a premium on skills.
Improving skills and training will give tourism operators access to a more mobile, professional workforce.
For example, we are working with Service Skills Australia to implement the Tourism and Hospitality Workforce Development Strategy.
At the same time, we're increasing labour mobility across jurisdictions.
Employees with a tourism or hospitality certification from one state will have their qualifications recognised nationally.
We're creating state of the industry research to improve industry intelligence on demographics, taxation, market trends and labour issues to gives investors more confidence to put capital into the sector.
Business events will also benefit from the Australian Government's $8.3 million TQUAL Grants program.
The Tourism and Transport Forum, for example, will receive $91,000 to develop a system to track performance data of business events in key venues around Australia.
Finally, the Australian Government and Tourism Australia is investing $150 million in a new 'There's nothing like Australia' global tourism campaign.
The marketing of Australia's pre and post conference touring options can be the difference between Australia winning or losing a conference bid.
Through the campaign, meeting delegates will be made aware of the vibrancy of our cities, our unique national landscapes, our indigenous cultural heritage, the friendliness of our people and many other uniquely Australian experiences.
Taken together, these measures add up to a big commitment to this $7.9 billion sector.
We need to continue to work together to capitalise on the return of business confidence in the short term while maintaining our focus on the long game.
That means a commitment to - investment, skills and labour, indigenous employment, the development of new product, and infrastructure in key tourism regions.
Congratulations on your hard work to date.
By working together, I'm confident the sector will make an even greater contribution to Australia's prosperity.
Thank you.