Australia’s Business Events Industry Recovers

A new Business Events Council of Australia report is indicating that Australia’s business events industry has recovered from the recent economic downturn. The report shows that international conference delegate numbers grew last year as the nation increased its share of the global meetings market.

According to the BECA 2012 State of the Industry Report, 190,000 people visited Australia last year to attend a conference or convention, up 11 percent over 2011.

New Zealand remained the major source of conference visitors, with numbers rising 2.5 percent since 2011, while convention visitors from the USA grew 26 percent, numbers from China increased 23 percent and Japanese arrivals rose 16 percent.

At the same time Australia’s market share of international association meetings increased to a ranking of 13th in 2012 compared to 16th in 2011

The report showed a decrease in the deficit between inbound and outbound convention travel with a 10 percent rise in arrivals and a 3 percent decrease in departures.

The BECA State of the Industry report is produced annually to measure the performance of the industry and track progress against a number of key performance indicators. Inge Garofani, BECA Executive Manager, said a majority of the key performance indicators showed continued growth for the industry, which had now recovered from the impact of the recent Global Financial Crisis.

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