TABEE 2006

MICE business, Aussie-style

The eighth edition of Team Australia Business Events Educational (TABEE) 2006 held in Bangkok, revealed that Asia is easily Tourism Australia's topmost priority sector and within it, India sits aside China as the most promising market. Hazel Jain reports

Tourism Australia made no secret of its intent to grow its MICE business, notching up the biggest seller delegation (11 convention and visitor bureaux and 35 incentive and corporate meeting suppliers) at TABEE 2006. The delegation met and discussed business with over 100 corporate end-users and travel agents from several Asian markets like Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and India. The growing proportions of the event was hardly surprising, given that Asia accounts for 80 per cent of Australia's incoming MICE traffic. This was rightly described by Tourism Australia's regional GM (Asia), Greig McAllan as the "the engine room for Australia's business tourism growth". All the elements required to make a successful incentive visit were represented there - from hotels, resorts, attractions, restaurants, convention and exhibition centres, event management companies and inbound tour operators.

McAllan said, "There are two levels at which a destination can attract tourists: its appeal to tourists, and infrastructure. At the end of the day, it is the destination which attracts visitors and if it is not appealing enough, then it won't sell." He added that Tourism Australia(TA) did not want a 'one size fits all' structure for business travellers from different countries. "We want to tailor our products according to the needs of the customers and then promote them," he said.

MICE programmes

Under MICE, incentive visits and product launches take top priority among business travellers. According to Johnny Nee, TA's regional manager (North East Asia and Business Tourism), it aims to position Australia as a unique and desirable destination for meetings and incentives. "Business from Asian markets, such as Korea, China, Taiwan and India continue to show strong growth and forward bookings for incentive trips are encouraging." To this effect, the board undertakes a range of promotional activities like TABEE, corporate FAMs, educational seminars and trade events.

This year's TABEE witnessed 92 buyers (45 corporate buyers and 47 travel agents) from all over Asia looking to tie up with the Australian sellers. Among the corporate end-users present were Bajaj Allianze Life Insurance, Bharti Televentures, HP India, L&T, and Unichem Lab. Although most sellers haven't considered floating special packages for the Indian market, they are looking to introduce innovative packages. For instance, to lure Indian tourists they will roll out cricket-centric packages that includes a visit to the home of cricket legend Don Bradman located between Canberra and Sydney.

Nee further revealed that industry sectors like direct sales, insurance and pharmaceuticals continue to be key players. Another key trend he disclosed was that larger size incentive movements were from the northeast Asian markets while the smaller groups came from the southeast Asian regions.

When asked whether New Zealand's weakening economy would affect visitor figures, Maggie White, regional manager (South and Southeast Asia) at TA, said, "Perhaps the leisure travel figures might take a beating but not MICE and business travel. However, promotion of business travel will surely have a trickle-down effect on leisure travel." White, who is the face of TA in India, added that although currently western India is providing the maximum business, it is the northern region which TA considers as its true potential and Mumbai and Delhi are the top two metros from where it expects good response. In fact, White hinted that TA is considering India as a future venue for TABEE. She said, "Last year saw rapid growth in incentive groups in 2005 to Australia and the board expects this trend to continue in future as well."

Brothers in arms

India has become one of the key focus countries for Australia after it recorded continuous growth in the area of business travel. According to international visitor arrivals data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the country received 68,000 tourists from India for the first time, putting it on the number one slot in terms of percentage growth. This translates to almost 22 per cent increase in Indian visitors during that period. However, it still rests on the ninth slot overall, overtaking only Phillippines.

Despite these figures, the Chinese market is a clear winner. It stood at the number one spot in terms of arrival figures at a whopping 2,85,000 indicating a percentage change of 13 per cent over previous year. Outlining the difference in these two markets, McAllan said, "India and China are both heading towards a similar plane. Both are global giants with booming economies and are in a good position vis-à-vis Australia. However, India has a smaller base as compared to China."

P Srinivas, VP (Special Interest Tours) of Kuoni Travel Group India, who was one of the hosted tour operators from India as well as a speaker in one of the sessions, was of the opinion that India as a business market was growing at a very dangerous rate. He said, "It is not whether India is ready for Australia but whether Australia is ready to cater to the growing Indian market."

The strong results for India, China and Korea demonstrate the rate at which these developing markets continue to grow. But at the same time Australia has also been able to maintain strong growth from mature markets of Singapore, Hong Kong and - for the first time in several years - Taiwan. McAllan said, "This suggests that Australia is providing consumers with the right combination of tourism experiences to suit the maturity of all markets, while TA is successfully targeting the right consumers through its integrated marketing approach." However, he reckoned that it was difficult to gauge which countries have the highest average spenders in business travel.

On the anvil

TA will now launch a global business tourism campaign on television and print by end of June 2006. "Australia is already a sought-after business tourism destination and the new campaign will complement the wide range of promotional activities we already undertake to ensure Australia is in the best possible position to compete effectively for a larger share of this segment," Nee said. The country has recently confirmed incentive business from high profile companies such as LG Electronics, Amway Korea, Amway Taiwan, Hero Honda, Citibank, Glaxo, Cathay Life and Allianze Life.