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Boosting Business Events – Creating Local Jobs

Office of the Chief Minister

The Territory Labor Government recognises the importance of the business events market to the Territory economy and continues to support the sector through our Turbocharging Tourism stimulus investment.

From 8 to 11 August, the 2019 Meet Darwin familiarisation program will be delivered in partnership between Tourism NT’s Northern Territory Convention Bureau and the Darwin Convention Centre.

The four day familiarisation is the largest ever staged and will showcase Darwin as one of Australia’s leading business events destinations and host 20 business event planners from throughout Australia who will engage with 45 NT industry partners.

Meet Darwin aims to deliver new business event opportunities to the NT and is supported by the Territory Labor Government’s $7 million TURBO2 investment to attract more national and international business events.

The event planners attending Meet Darwin represent over 8,800 potential national and international delegates across health, education, environment, and tourism industries.

In the 2018/19 financial year, over 19,000 national and international delegates attended events at the Darwin Convention Centre, providing over $54 million in delegate spend.

The Territory Labor Government recently released its first Long-term Business Events Strategy to 2030 which identified the need to increase the number of familiarisation trips to encourage business event planners to experience the NT for themselves.

This strategy is complemented by the Northern Territory Business Events Support Fund, a component of the NT Government’s Turbocharging Tourism stimulus package, which offers financial assistance to eligible organisations considering the Northern Territory as the location to host their business events.

Quotes from Minister for Tourism, Sport and Culture, Lauren Moss:

“The Territory Labor Government’s Turbocharging Tourism investment in business events attraction has already secured 45 business events that will generate an estimated $32.8M in delegate expenditure - this is a direct boost to our economy meaning more local jobs.

“TURBO2 initiative includes a further investment of $7 million over two years to attract more national and international business events to the NT through the NT Business Events Support Fund.

“The Meet Darwin familiarisation program overwhelmingly conveys that Darwin is a competitive, distinctive and meaningful destination to stage business events.

Quotes from Peter Savoff, General Manager, Darwin Convention Centre:

“Now in its eleventh year, the Meet Darwin joint program has proven to be one of our most successful initiatives to attract future conferences to the city and our world-class, award-winning Darwin Convention Centre.

“We often find event planners have not been to Darwin before and are unaware of what we have to offer. The Meet Darwin program provides key decision makers the opportunity to visit the Top End and experience first-hand our business events venues and expertise.”

“We want to continue to build on the momentum of the previous year and secure more national and international conferences with high numbers of delegates. The Centre prides itself of being at the heart of business events in the Top End.”


Media Contact: Lisa Sennett 0436 929 858


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