The Business Events Cairns & Great Barrier Reef Showcase (BECGBR) featured 18 local business events suppliers as it hit Brisbane for a lunch, Sydney for a breakfast and Melbourne for a cocktail event.

“The three events gave us the opportunity to meet 100 association and corporate buyers, professional conference organisers and destination management companies,” says Tourism Tropical North Queensland’s general manager of partnerships and events, Tara Bennett.

“We took 45kg of local produce to set up a display in each city showcasing the diversity of tropical food and beverages from our region, which can be used as delegate gifts. 

“Each delegate then got to select what they would like to have as a gift with chocolate, coffee, tea, dried fruit, macadamia nuts, chilli sauces, lollies, Worstershire sauce, spices and dukkah among the choices.”

Samples of the produce can be seen in the above image, featuring Tourism Tropical North Queensland’s manager of events, Natalie Johnson. 

“At each event, we launched two new videos, with one targeting the association market and the other the incentive market, which were well received by buyers as a useful tool to showcase the destination and its business events capabilities,” says Bennett.

“The videos, which were shot as part of our ‘Create with Great’ content shoot, are now in use by one of the professional conference organisers, and are hosted on the Tourism Australia and Tourism and Events Queensland websites.

“The BECGBR annual showcase is an opportunity to bring the sunshine of Tropical North Queensland to the eastern seaboard cities, where the team’s enthusiasm was well received by Australia’s leading business events sellers. 

“The showcase complements the in-region educationals, site inspections and brand marketing being undertaken to elevate the Cairns and Great Barrier Reef business events story.”

The Business Events Cairns & Great Barrier Reef showcase participants were Reef Unlimited; Crystalbrook Collection; Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort Port Douglas; Shangri-la the Marina Cairns; Cairns Convention Centre; Down Under Tours; Pullman Cairns International; NQ Exhibitions; Quicksilver Group; Hemingway’s Brewery; Managing Australian Destinations; CaPTA Group; Mexicairns; Hilton Cairns; Thala Beach Nature Reserve; Voyages Mossman Gorge Centre; Business Events Port Douglas; and Cairns Adventure Group.