Minister for Tourism and Major Events, George Souris, today announced that Business Events Sydney (BESydney) achieved one of its most successful financial periods, securing 103 business events in the 2011-12 financial year, worth about $225.6 million to the NSW economy.
“This is a record number of event wins and a 21 per cent increase on the previous year’s economic impact results. In fact, it is the third highest economic delivery in the organisation’s history,” Mr Souris said.
“Sydney’s ongoing success as a business events destination is a clear indication of the Harbour City’s appeal, which extends beyond our strong leisure industry to the State’s broad strengths across commerce, creativity, culture, natural beauty and of course our strong, internationally-recognised knowledge base.
“This great result from our business events sector is a good indicator that the NSW Government’s targets to double tourism expenditure by 2020 are ambitious and achievable.
“Sydney has won a slew of international awards with the latest from Travel+Leisure magazine as well as a long list of international honours collected in the last 18 months, including number one city in the Condé Nast Traveller Readers’ Choice Awards, Lonely Planet’s World Best Summer City award and world’s best festival and major events city by the International Festival and Events Association.
“This result from BESydney confirms our State’s global reputation for excellence and also the organisation’s expertise in securing valuable events for NSW.”
Lyn Lewis-Smith, CEO, Business Events Sydney said: “Our success last financial year can be contributed to our expert team, our long-term client relationships across the association and incentive sectors, and the strong support of our stakeholders – both public and private sector. A collaborative approach is essential.
“My team has been working solidly and strategically, with the support of our Strategic Partners and Members, to ensure that Sydney is maximising opportunities to bring business events to our shores. Our focus is on events that are high-profile, high-yield or linked to the NSW Government’s priority industry sectors. Beyond the visitor economy, we are also securing events that will help to drive the State’s knowledge economy.”
Ms Lewis-Smith said the 2011-12 financial year also broke records for BESydney’s expanding Asian business. A total of 33 events with an estimated economic impact of $91 million were secured, which will see 18,641 corporate incentive and meeting clients travel from the region in the coming years.
“Opportunities for the business events sector in Asia continue to grow, and concurrently so does BESydney‘s success in this market. We are proactively pursuing the opportunities that exist with savvy organisations in South and North Asia, and our understanding of the market, our city’s many selling points and our in-market presence have proved invaluable,” said Ms Lewis-Smith.
“We expect to continue to grow this Asian business. In the first two weeks of this financial year, the team secured two events with an economic impact of $3.3 million! Pair this with our current work in China’s second tier cities and our strong leads within the extraordinarily large association market, and our success is destined to grow.”
This increase in business from Asia is changing the business event landscape in Sydney, with the traditionally long-lead times of association business, reduced to a matter of months for many corporate incentive programs.
“This shift in event delivery times is changing how we operate in terms of both bidding and supporting clients throughout the event lifecycle. It’s also changing the way our leading event suppliers need to respond to client needs. It’s an interesting, and exciting, period of change and opportunity,” said Ms Lewis- Smith.
Some highlight events secured by BESydney in FY11/12 include:
- Perfect China Leadership Seminar 2013 – 3,500 delegates, worth an estimated economic impact of $20.9 million
- IUCN World Parks Congress 2014 – 3,000 delegates, worth an estimated $23.6 million
- 12th Congress of the International Society for Organ Donation and Procurement (ISODP) 2013 – 400 delegates, worth an estimated $1.5 million
