Sydney braces for bumper 12 months of business events
Events key to hotels recovery after tough two years
While the lucrative international market is expected to take years before it fully recovers, Sydney’s domestic attendance at business events is gradually returning, according to Business Events Sydney CEO, Lyn Lewis-Smith, with a bumper year on the cards.
Addressing a gathering of Sydney’s senior hotel managers, and representatives from Tourism Accommodation Australia (TAA) and the Accommodation Association (AA), Ms Lewis-Smith detailed the current 72 major events the harbour city will host between now and the end of 2023.
TAA CEO, Michael Johnson said events are a huge part of the recovery for hotels in Australia’s major cities and the next year looks to be a bumper one.
“There are 31 large events booked in this year and then another 41 locked in for 2023,” he said.
“16 of those events will have more than 1,000 delegates and seven will have over 2,000 delegates.
“It is just the type of news our city hotels need after two very tough years.”
According to a new EY Report for the Sydney Business Events Coalition, business events – conferences, exhibitions and corporate meetings – were worth $10.4 billion annually to the NSW economy, of which $5.7 billion was spent in the Sydney metropolitan area.
Mike Parker-Brown is a UK-trained and qualified journalist and an award-winning travel communicator with more than 30 years experience.
Since 2002, Mike has worked as a freelance writer and PR consultant providing his services to major organisations in Australia and internationally in the tourism, aviation, hospitality, recruitment and export marketing sectors.
