After a successful inaugural South Pacific Tourism Exchange Event in Auckland in 2014 the organisers are now heading to Australia to sell the Pacific tourism market in June 2015.
Officially announcing the SPTE 2015 event today, South Pacific Tourism Organisation Chief Executive Ilisoni Vuidreketi said the positive feedback from buyers and sellers in New Zealand this year justified the second event this time in Australia.
“Apart from displaying the Pacific at our 2014 exhibition we received feedback from the participants that the networking was an opportunity never to be missed,” he said.
“This event will be staged in conjunction with the Australian Tourism Exchange 2015 event at the Melbourne Exhibition Convention Centre so we have the opportunity to also benefit from their own international and domestic networks.
“A number of participants in Auckland had asked for more time to conduct the event and such feedback has encouraged us as we plan the way forward for SPTE 2015.”
He said in terms of sales from the 2014 event, most participants (76 per cent) reported they were able to establish relations with a wholesaler with 18 per cent actually establishing new business with a wholesaler and the rest already enjoying some partnership but used the event as an opportunity to create and strengthen better contacts.
“We had a total of 1,300 business appointments during SPTE 2014 and anticipate an even higher response when we arrive in Australia for SPTE 2015,” he said.
Mr Vuidreketi said they were announcing the dates earlier as the lessons learned from the inaugural event meant they had to plan in advance to allow international buyers (wholesalers) time to prepare their business travel for the new year.
“As you can see the date is June 2015 so you must be asking why are we announcing the event so early,” he said.
“The reason is there is a lot of planning involved this year to enable us to realise the real cost and logistics involved in planning next year’s event as we are dealing with more than 50 Pacific tourism suppliers (sellers) from our region and about 60 international wholesalers (buyers), for SPTE 2015.
“While it may seem early to reveal our plans we hope to make SPTE 2015 much bigger than the 2014 event – learning from the valuable lessons we gained this year.
“I urge all buyers and sellers intending to attend this event to please start planning now for SPTE 2015 as we try to enhance our position in the region.
The SPTO is currently consulting with tourism stakeholders including Tourism Australia to promote the SPTE which takes place from June 19-20 at the Melbourne Exhibition Convention Centre.
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