Tourism Australia’s Business Events Boost Program awards 86 successful applicants

86 organisations have been successful in their applications to access Tourism Australia’s Business Events Boost Program which delivers funding for industry-led marketing and distribution initiatives. 189 applications to partner with Tourism Australia were received.

The Program is a domestic partnership program for Australia’s business events industry

The program provides funding and expertise to industry-led marketing and distribution projects which help restart business events in Australia, to support industry recovery from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The new partnership program forms part of Tourism Australia’s broader domestic strategy being delivered by its specialist Business Events Australia unit, and aims to ‘kick start’ domestic business events and help support the local industry in lieu of international business.

Successful applicants represent a range of cities and regional destinations, venues and key business events products and experiences. The funding will assist with innovative programs and activities including the development of digital assets including video and stills content creation, virtual site inspections, digital marketing and social media campaigns targeting corporate decision makers, event planners and media. The successful ideas, once implemented, will help influence decision makers of existing domestic business events and convert new ones.

Tourism Australia Executive General Manager, Penny Lion notes “the calibre of ideas submitted through the program application process was impressive. Our team has had the challenging job of awarding projects to receive support from the $1.5 million fund announced earlier this year as part of broader efforts to assist the industry prompt a restart to business.

The announcement of the successful applicants comes as Tourism Australia plans a domestic marketing campaign to motivate corporate and association decision makers to host a business event. The Event Here This Year campaign, that debuted as part of bushfire recovery efforts earlier this year, is being evolved to sell the value of face-to-face connection, encourage businesses to hold events and enjoy Australia’s world class offering while international borders remain closed.

The Business Events Boost Program applications opened on 1st July and closed on 30th September 2020. All supported activity needs to be completed by 30th June 2021.