Major aviation conferences and forum organisers are increasingly favouring Australia as a venue, with South Australia and Queensland the latest to have scored big airline-industry-related events.
In August, CAPA Centre for Aviation’s Australia-Pacific Summit gathered over 600 aviation and corporate travel executives in Sydney for what is widely regarded as the largest strategic summit in the region.
Next year, the world’s largest aviation forum – 25th annual World Aviation Routes conference – will head to Adelaide.
South Australian senator Simon Birmingham said the global trade event would see around 3000 aviation professionals from 300 airlines, 700 airports and 130 tourism authorities gather to discuss and develop new aviation routes and strategies.
“This is a unique opportunity for Australia and also South Australia to take centre stage and have the biggest players in world aviation in our own backyard,” Birmingham said.
“By hosting this conference, we’ll be front of mind when the biggest aviation companies have discussions about new air routes or expanding capacity on existing routes.
“Whilst international aviation capacity to Australia now exceeds 25 million seats per year, further increasing this capacity will only strengthen and help sustain our tourism industry in the long run.”
The World Routes 2019 conference will take place from 21 to 24 September and will be jointly hosted by the South Australian Tourism Commission, Adelaide Airport, the Adelaide Convention Bureau and Tourism Australia.
Meanwhile, Brisbane has also secured a major international aviation conference.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the 145th International Air Transport Association (IATA) Slot Conference will run from 12-15 November 2019 and will welcome more than 1000 delegates from major airlines around the world to negotiate slots at international airports.
“This event will bring to Queensland some of the biggest players in international aviation to negotiate for the most sought-after slots on the planet,” Palaszczuk said.
“It’s the perfect opportunity to showcase our state to the world but will also open up discussions around how we can continue to strategically grow tourism in Queensland through aviation.”
The announcement comes off the back of the highly successful Routes Asia Conference hosted in Brisbane earlier this year.
Tourism Industry Development Minister Kate Jones said the IATA Slot Conference provided a great opportunity for the government to strengthen relationships with airline executives in growing tourism markets.
“Improving access to our key tourism destinations is an important part of our strategy to grow Queensland’s AUD 25 billion tourism industry,” she said.
The conference was secured through a partnership between Tourism and Events Queensland’s Business Events Acquisition and Leveraging Fund, Tourism Australia, Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC), Brisbane Marketing and the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Written by Peter Needham
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