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The Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) is holding its flagship national conference - Meeting Place - in Adelaide in October, with the event set to attract up to 500 tourism industry leaders.

ATEC is moving through its 50th year celebrations with grassroots membership engagement to identify key ‘go forward’ issues which will underpin the future of inbound success.

Having already held ‘Building Back Inbound’ roundtable discussions with members in North Queensland, Victoria and South Australia, ATEC plans to bring together a range of key issues from across the country to put on the table for discussion at the Adelaide Meeting Place conference.

ATEC Managing Director Peter Shelley notes “as we move away from the pandemic and all the challenges lockdown brought our industry, ATEC is focused on identifying the priority ‘go forward’ issues for tourism businesses.

"There are some key themes evolving as we engage members, including sustainability in all its different dimensions, connectivity and how to streamline the tourism distribution process to ensure ‘less touch, less costs, less friction’.

“We are also continuing to focus on achieving the best user experience (UX) anyone visiting Australia, removing impediments to travel like antiquated, unfriendly and unwelcoming visa processes along with the increasing burden of additional taxes and charges being lumped onto international visitors that are eroding our competitiveness as a travel destination.

“The valuable information gained at our roundtables will feed back to a framework which will drive ATEC’s agenda for the medium term with a strong focus on the issues that have a progressive ‘go forward’ perspective.”

In marking 50 years of ATEC the organisation is recognising the impressive commitment of people across the decades and events of significance which have driven success and growth over the past five decades.  With a special ‘Golden Gala’ event at Meeting Place, members have already shown a strong commitment to celebrating with almost 300 delegates already registered during the early bird period.

“Meeting Place has always been ATEC’s flagship event, starting out as a place where buyers and sellers came together to set tariffs for the year ahead and evolving into a multi-day B2B and thought leadership conference event where business meetings are supplemented with valuable industry conversations.

“As we move toward the next 50 years of our industry, ATEC is looking forward to celebrating the challenges and achievements of the past and together with our members building a strong future for export tourism.”

Hosting Meeting Place this year is Adelaide, will be a great opportunity for the state and city to reinforce its tourism offering as international visitors start to re-engage with destination Australia.

Shelley adds “Meeting Place is an exceptional platform for showcasing South Australia, bringing together the people who sell Australia to the world and delivering them right to your front door.

“With a concentrated number of international travel buyers gathered in one place, Meeting Place, with its 50 year history, is the most accessible interface for Australian export tourism businesses to put their products in front of the right people.

Minister for Tourism Zoe Bettison said it was terrific that Adelaide has secured ATEC’s flagship event and shared “hosting ATEC Meeting Place provides an opportunity to showcase South Australia directly to those who will help sell it internationally, playing an important role in the recovery of our state’s International Visitor Expenditure to $1.2 billion by December 2025 – and helping drive it more boldly towards our 2030 target of $3.3 billion.”

With event partner South Australian Tourism Commission and supported by Adelaide Airport and the Adelaide Economic Development Agency (a subsidiary of the City of Adelaide), Meeting Place offers three days of B2B events that include Young Industry Leaders presentations, thought leading conference program, industry meetings, valuable networking functions as well as a gala finale event featuring the graduation of ATEC’s ELITE Young Leaders program, plus ATEC’s Annual Excellence Awards.

Image top: Peter Shelley with Zoe Bettison. Credit ATEC; Image above: Adelaide. Credit: Tourism Australia

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