financial excesses

INTERNATIONAL
Positive impression,
but no stats
Kicking off the series of major MICE fairs in 2010, at the beginning
of March AIME sent out positive signals for the industry.
AIME 2011 will take place February 15 – 16, once again in the
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
After the crisis year 2009,
which also left its mark on
events business worldwide,
the industry eagerly awaited
the performance of AIME,
Asia-Pacific Incentives &
Meetings Expo, 2010. As the
first in the series of important
international meetings, incentives
and events industry
trade shows in the new business
year, it also acted as a
trend barometer of the trade.
Due in no small measure to its
structure, venue and location,
AIME once again performed
completely convincingly as an
Lobby of the Silverwater Resort
AIME 2010
event. (See the interview with
Sandra Chipchase, CEO Melbourne
Convention + Visitors
Bureau, MCVB.) Roughly 800
exhibition stands on an area of
13,500 m², 195 new exhibitors
and 513 hosted buyers from
33 countries – against 469
from 25 countries in 2009 –
were recorded.
But despite the many positive
individual statements from
exhibitors and visitors, AIME
cannot be regarded as an objective
trend barometer. This
is because, fully eight weeks
after the end of the show,
Reed Travel Exhibitions, RTE,
which organises AIME for the
MCVB, has still not
published the final
figures for the fair –
most importantly
the exhibitor and attendance
stats –
even though these
were promised for
the beginning of
this April and must
certainly be available
in-house. Re-
grettably, RTE’s familiar strategy
of hushing up exhibitor
and visitor statistics that do
not suit clouds the good overall
impression that the fair actually
made in the industry.
The AIME pre-tours, like the
Top attraction
Penguine Parade
one to Phillip Island, left a similarly
positive impression. 140
km south-east of Melbourne
and linked to the mainland by a
bridge, Phillip Island has
earned itself a name first and
foremost as a popular holiday
resort, drawing some 3.5 million
visitors each year. In fact,
the island boasting a 101 kilometre-long
coastline exercises
the greatest pull in Australia
after Uluru (Ayers Rock). Its
main attractions are the Phillip
Island Grand Prix Circuit and,
even more so, the 33 centimetre-high
Little Penguins
that live in their thousands,
spread among several colo-
nies along the coast in selfdug
or man-made sand dune
burrows.
While the race circuit overlooking
the sea attracts motor
sports fans from the mainland
chiefly when races are on –
these include the Australian
Motorcycle Grand Prix and the
2010 Phillip Island Round, Superbike
World Championship
– the penguins have become a
year-round attraction thanks
to some acute marketing. As
result, the Penguin Parade is
noted as Australia’s top wildlife
attraction.
It certainly is a moving sight
when, after a whole day in the
sea, the cute little dwarf penguins
land shyly and cautiously
in their hundreds, in small
groups one after the other,
roughly an hour after sunset
to march to their burrows – no
mean feat on such short legs.
Incidentally, they are protected
from foxes, cats and humans
by dedicated and friendly
rangers, who will willingly
answer all the fascinated
spectators’ questions. It is a
highlight that makes Phillip Island
an incentive-worthy destination
for an excursion.
As an incentive and meetings
destination, the island is promoted
proactively and with
great commitment by the race
circuit management and Sarah
Bell in particular, the Business
Development Manager
of the Silverwater Resort
(www.silverwaterresort.com.au).
Among other facilities,
the resort with seaviews
can offer a boardroom, two
partitionable meeting rooms,
the largest of which holds 220
people, and 170 extremely
comfortable apartments. As
the undisputed top local hostelry,
the resort generates
40% of its custom from corporate
business. TF
106 2/2010