Local Support: Sydney CVB Asks for Help

By Gary Tufel -- Tradeshow Week, 9/27/2004

Sydney regularly garners awards as one of the world's favorite destinations, and its meetings and convention numbers are at record levels. But Jon Hutchison, managing director of the Sydney Convention & Visitors Bureau, thinks the city could do a lot better. All it needs, he said, is a little help from its friends.

Hutchison said the city faces a conspicuous lack of support from the local business community, which refuses to help the bureau in marketing Sydney to more and larger tradeshows.

"They're free riders," said Hutchison. "They benefit from something they take no interest in, although those who do participate recognize the value."

He said an SCVB report showed two consecutive record years, with the average size of meetings up and results over target — but revenue from all that activity is still down. For that, Hutchison blamed increasing worldwide competition for meeting and convention dollars.

"We have the product and the skills, but the competition has accelerated over the past 10 to 15 years," he said.

Hutchison expects China to be No. 1 in a decade due to its construction of some 200 convention and exhibition venues. There are still no associations there, but that will change. Furthermore, he said, Korea has first-class convention and exhibition facilities and is hunting for events to fill them, and Hong Kong and Singapore are doubling their capacity.

"Melbourne has a new convention center, and the Gold Coast and Perth are well under way with theirs. The EU (European Union) has crept up on the rest of the world, as has Dubai and Qatar."

He said the SCVB would continue to work with companies in the hospitality and transportation sectors, as well as state and city governments. But there's been a lack of success in "getting the big end of town involved." Hutchison attacked the lack of participation and interest from bank executives, prominent restaurateurs and retailers, who he said fail to see that events create economic activity.

"This apathy doesn't occur in overseas cities, especially in Asia. Awards for Sydney as the world's best city help, but they don't bring events," he noted.

No major retailers or banks are members of the SCVB, Hutchison added, calling this Sydney's major challenge for the future. Sydney is working with Tourism Australia and others to produce a national strategy linked to how the country is perceived internationally. There will also be more emphasis on market and event research. And the city has opened an office in Hong Kong, in addition to its London and New York offices. Sydney is stronger than ever in the United States, according to Hutchison, but the downturn in business travel since 9/11 is still a factor.

Bev Malzard, editor of Australia's Convention & Incentive Marketing magazine, agreed that the "big end of town" is lax in its support of the bureau. "But perhaps the fault lies on both sides," she pointed out. "The Sydney business community needs to see strong, positive marketing from the bureau as well as a commitment. This commitment has to be more than lip service, and maybe the business community isn't receiving as much nurturing as outside overseas product."

Malzard believes the bureau should educate retailers, hotels, restaurants and attractions on the value of business travel. "The convention and incentive industry is high yield and has excellent potential for good business practice and high profits that spread from an individual base to the broader community," she said. "Still, in some sectors there is a lack of understanding as to how it all can work."

Bryan Humphris, president of the Exhibition & Event Assn. of Australasia, agreed with Hutchison that the local business community as a whole must accept responsibility for providing financial and personal support of the local convention bureau, since it is the direct beneficiary of the economic impact made by the visitors that the bureau attracts. And he agreed with Malzard that the business community needs to be educated on what the business event industry can do in return.

"To guarantee that the required level of funding will be there in the medium term, I would have the City Council apply a levy that, to be fair, would relate to turnover," Humphris said. "But at the end of the day I would advocate that most of the funding would be derived from government. The economic impact that exhibitions have is considerable when one includes the exhibitors, contractors and visitors over a four-day event. Plus, the organizers spend, and the government will be the main beneficiary through taxes and a strong economy."