Business Events Victoria (BEV), which delivers the Regional Victoria Business Events Program on behalf of Tourism Victoria, achieved strong growth in securing event leads for regional businesses in 2012-13. The program secured 171 leads that were referred to regional venues and destinations – an increase of 119 per cent year-on-year to June 2013. Of these leads, 81 have resulted in bookings, an increase of 131 per cent on 2011-12.
The 171 leads represented a potential 25,857 delegate days spent in regional Victoria, 10,883 room nights booked and an economic value of $8.7 million (based on average spending of $336 per delegate to a domestic overnight business event, as cited in Tourism Research Australia’s State of the Industry 2012 report).
The aim of the program is to promote regional Victoria to business event organisers to ensure that it is front of mind when they are selecting a destination and venue.