Queensland welcomes global tourism industry for Australian Tourism Exchange

Queensland will become the focus of the world’s tourism industry from this weekend as Cairns opens its doors to delegates for the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE14) with almost 2,000 delegates from 38 countries converging in Queensland’s tropical north.

Federal Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb and Queensland’s Minister for Tourism and Major Events Jann Stuckey welcomed Australian tourism’s most significant business-to-business trade event, bringing together Australian tourism businesses with the international travel industry and media, to Cairns.

“The Australian Tourism Exchange – ATE – is the largest tradeshow of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and the premiere annual tourism event for the Australian tourism industry,” Mr Robb said.

“ATE brings together 600 travel wholesalers from 40 countries with 1,200 sellers from over 500 Australian tourism companies to do business.

“I’m pleased to welcome everyone to Cairns, one of Australia’s premier regional destinations, for ATE 2014,” he added.

“Queensland is proud to host this year’s event in one of Australia’s premier tourism destinations, delivering on the Newman Government’s commitment to grow the Queensland tourism industry as one of the four pillars of the economy,” Ms Stuckey said.

“The destinations and tourism products of Queensland will be centre stage with the strongest presence of any state at the event providing an opportunity to increase our share of the inbound travel market.

“ATE14 will provide a real boost to our tourism industry, delivering an immediate injection of $10 million into the local economy. Longer term this will help to grow Queensland’s $23 billion tourism industry.

“The event will be a significant contributor to our goal to grow overnight visitor expenditure from $15 billion to $30 billion by 2020 by developing a productive link between Queensland’s tourism businesses and the global distribution network.”

Member for Cairns and Assistant Minister for Tourism Gavin King said in the lead up to ATE14, Queensland would host international and domestic journalists at a media marketplace in Palm Cove.

“This media marketplace will connect media from around the world with tourism businesses to raise awareness for products and develop future stories on Queensland’s tourism experiences,” Mr King said.

“From Sunday, trade delegates from Queensland’s key international markets will meet with Queensland tourism businesses in Cairns for five days of productive business briefings and appointments.