ATEC Meeting Place is in Darwin for the very first time!
Meeting Place is one of two flagship events for ATEC (Australian Tourism Export Council) and until recently this event was always held in Sydney. In 2016, the event was held in Canberra for the first time and Perth last year, also for the first time. Around 400 delegates attend this 4 day event including Australian tourism suppliers, governmnet deligates, regional tourism authorities and Australian based inbound tour operators.
Delegates at the morning apointment sesson of Meeting Place 2018 at the Darwin Convention Centre.
Meeting Place includes a number of appointments with inbound tour operators, conference sessions, the ELITE mentoring program presentations and industry awards during the annual gala dinner. Sydney Melbourne Touring has been a member of ATEC for many years and is a regular attendee of ATEC Meeting Place. Appointments with the agents at this years event included Pan pacific, Diverse Travel, APTC, AOT, Australia One and several Chinese ITOs.
Feedback from these agents suggested the UK market was still quite flat and BRIXIT was seen as a cause of this trend given the confusion of potential impact on the local econony and value of the Brittish pound. Growth however was recorded from German and Swiss markets along with the US and China.
The Chinese agents still seemed to struggle with self-drive suggesting it was all too much hard work when most Chinese who wish to self drive end up getting all the information then booking direct online and the agent misses out completely. Several of the Chinese agents suggested Universities were the best point of influence for the VFR segment.
Paul Cooper and Anthony Jiang ready for the morning appointment session at ATEC Meeting Place 2018
Other issues discussed with the agents included famil tour opportunities, new product and product gaps, distribution channels and the new Live Stream training concept SMT will be delivering soon. ATEC is a peak Australian tourism body and you can get more information from their website www.atec.net.au