30-Jun-2011 | Business Events Tasmania hosted 11 professional event planners from New Zealand last month and overall the feedback received has been excellent. The invited event planners deal specifically with high yield clients - a lucrative market that provides significant economic and social benefits to Tasmania.

Over four days the group took part in a range of activities including wine tasting at Josef Chromy Winery, a scenic Rotor-Lift helicopter flight over Wineglass Bay and a visit to MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art. They also enjoyed a Medieval Feast at Meadowbank Estate, met a baby Tasmanian devil at Cataract Gorge Restaurant, strolled Salamanca Markets, sampled whisky at Lark Distillery and explored Woolmers Estate.

Auckland based event specialist Diane Pomfret, Director of Ironbark Events, said it was her first visit to Tasmania and it was important to see what the state had to offer her clients.

"We cater for high end conferences for 10 to 350 people in the automotive, finance, retail, IT and pharmaceutical industries and trips like our visit to Tasmania allow us to look at a different market, and I believe the destination has great potential", she said.

Business Events Tasmania CEO, Stuart Nettlefold, said the organisation has been targeting the New Zealand market over the last couple of years and have seen some good results through activities like the Pacific Area Incentives and Conferences Expo.

“However, the recent New Zealand famil which was hosted in conjunction with Business Events Australia and Qantas Airways, has really enhanced the overall strategy and positioning of Tasmania as a business events destination of choice in this market,” he said.

“The famil provided a wonderful opportunity for the professional event planners to experience the best of what Tasmania has to offer, and we were able to showcase exciting new products such as MONA, Saffire and Princes Wharf Shed 1, showing that we do have the capacity to attract high yield corporate and incentive groups, as well as larger conferences of up to 1100 delegates.

"Our focus now is to work with these professional event planners to convert new business into Tasmania to ensure we receive maximum return on investment."

The famil also received good media coverage, with two feature articles on Tasmania expected to be published shortly.

Finally, here’s an example of some of the feedback received from famil participants:

"I just wanted to write to express my sincere thanks for such a wonderful experience in Tasmania. I have personally emailed everyone whose details I managed to obtain to say a huge thank you to everyone I met."

"I was so impressed by the creativity, the passion, and pure hunger for new business, which is so refreshing. The programme you put together was magnificent, giving me an insight into the creativity, the wide range of accommodation on offer, the expanse of activities, the sumptuous food and extensive range of wine, not forgetting the true professionalism of you lovely ladies, who would certainly be key to us putting forward Tasmania as a destination for our corporate groups."

“I have returned to NZ with a very positive view on what is on offer - I feel that the destination is a jigsaw with all the pieces working together, the only challenge we may have is in air travel logistics, and if we are able to work on this one element I am very confident we will put Tasmania forward to our clients in the future.”

Kate Saunders
Marketing and Communications Manager

Tweet

Follow

• RSS
• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube

Go Back | Top | More News