Adelaide Convention Bureau has wrapped up its 8th annual Destination SA (DSA) trade event, the only tradeshow that solely caters to the state’s MICE industry.
Adelaide Convention Bureau’s director of marketing and sales, Martin Radcliffe addresses the crowd at the gala dinner held at the Adelaide Oval to farewell international guests
The event served as a platform for Adelaide and regional South Australia to showcase their potential to host business events and incentive travel of an international standard. In a bid to deliver significant economic impact to the state and its business event operators and suppliers, the Adelaide Convention Bureau invited event and incentive buyers and planners from interstate and overseas to South Australia between 2-6 August. This year’s event could be their most successful to date with record numbers in hosted buyers exhibitors and the largest media contingent so far.
DSA 2011 could surpass last year’s returns with a record number in hosted buyers, exhibitors and media that attended the event
The trade event took place at the Adelaide Convention Centre on Friday 5 August 2011 with a record of 48 South Australian exhibitors with industry names such as Staging Connections, Novatech Creative Event Technology, Epicure, Sanctuary Adelaide Zoo, Adelaide Oval, Adelaide Expo Hire, The Great Southern Rail, Virgin and Qantas airlines and venues like the Hilton Adelaide, The Sebel Playford, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Southern Ocean Lodge and The Louise amongst many more.
The pre-scheduled appointment system, with a record number of 100 hosted buyers from Australia, Asia and New Zealand.
Exhibitors worked as a part of a collaborative and engaging industry promoting the destination as a city offering everything an organiser might want within easy access.
In addition, DSA was the perfect event to show off the region’s best wines and fresh produce creations with the Convention Centre’s in-house chefs catering for the event throughout the day.
Jimi Charleston from Woodstock Wines conducts a wine tasting session as a part of the regional SA famil tour at the McLaren Vale
A key component of DSA 2011 was the hosted famil trips to the many tourism regions around the state. With the Bureau having recently released a number of new incentive travel itineraries based on the unique offerings the state had available to visitors, buyers attending DSA, the hosted parties discovered many of the diverse and exceptional experiences available in South Australia such as The Barossa, McLaren Vale, Adelaide Hills and Kangaroo Island.
Adelaide Convention Bureau’s CEO, Damien Kitto interacts with the packed audience from Australia, Asia and New Zealand at the historic book-lined Mortlock Chamber in the State Library in Adelaide.
The Adelaide Convention Bureau utilised Destination SA to launch the final phase of its Incentives Adelaide programme which included a Chinese version of their incentive programme online, videos highlighting the destination’s many tour operators and a regular e-newsletter including updates and recent developments for the region.
Destination SA resulted in some $41m economic impact for the state of South Australia in 2010 and Adelaide Convention Bureau CEO Damien Kitto hopes this may reach a figure of $50m following the 2011 event.
For more information please visit www.adelaideconvention.com.au
