EVENT HERE THIS YEAR ROLLOUT

TWELVE months after its conception at the height of last year’s bushfire crisis, a new campaign led by Tourism Australia will seek to drive demand for domestic business events (BEN breaking news).

The Event Here This Year promotion was put on pause as the COVID-19 pandemic arose, with the new iteration aiming to promote the value of faceto-face events and showcasing the “breadth and quality of Australia’s business events offering,” according to Tourism Australia MD Phillipa Harrison.

“There’s no doubt that Australia’s business events industry has been hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis,” she said.

“This critical part of our visitor economy directly contributed $35.7 billion last financial year and provided employment to 229,000 people across the country, so it is important that we continue to provide support to this valuable sector.

“With international borders likely to remain closed for the foreseeable future, the recovery of Australia’s business events industry will undoubtedly be driven by Australian businesses and associations choosing to hold events here,” Harrison said.

Overseen by the Business Events Australia team, the promotion is also supported by the Business Events Boost domestic partnership program, which provides funding for industry-led marketing and distribution projects to encourage local activity.

The new campaign will roll out over the next six months across traditional media, outdoor, digital and social media channels, alongside ongoing content and PR activity.

A full toolkit of collateral is also available for the industry to adopt in its own marketing activities, including a social media guide, suggestions to use the #EventHereThisYear hashtag, logos in a variety of formats and more - see australia.com/businessevents.

The campaign was launched on the Gold Coast last week by recently appointed Minister for Trade Tourism and Investment, Dan Tehan, who also touted the $50 million Business Events Grants Program which subsidises up to 50% of the cost of participating in more than 100 eligible shows this year.

More of the campaign creative can be viewed online at facebook.com/busevenews.