A new business events data dashboard aims to help the sector better understand and cater for attendees.
Created by Tourism Research Australia (TRA) the interactive, publicly accessible dashboard provides official statistics on business events and related travel expenditure.
Federal Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell said business events, such as conferences, expos and trade fairs, played an important role in Australia, with the new data showing it contributed $20.9 billion to Australia’s economy in 2023.
“This included spending of $10.4 billion on food, drink, and accommodation, $4.4 billion on domestic airfares, and $1.1 billion on tours and entertainment,” Senator Farrell said.
The dashboard aims to improve the quality of data on business events, with information released quarterly.
It will allow for better analysis of business events travellers, including spending behaviour, type of event and venues attended, as well as the number of days spent at events.
Other TRA quarterly statistics showed total international visitor expenditure in 2023 returned to 89 percent of its pre-COVID peak.
International visitors spent $28 billion in Australia, an increase of 120 per cent on 2022.
View the latest data on the Tourism Research Australia website.
