In the lead up to APEC we were promised that the hassle would all be worthwhile because of the benefits that would flow on to Sydney. Among these promises were suggestions that it would be like the Olympics all over again.

ASE sought some industry comments.

The Sydney Convention & Visitors Bureau would be the best organisation to note any benefits from events such as APEC so ASE asked SCVB Managing Director Jon Hutchison to comment.

“APEC will enhance Australia's profile but in quite a different way to what happened around the Olympics.   The Olympics publicity enhanced Australia (particularly Sydney) as a great place to visit, it also helped by showing that we could deliver events well." 

"APEC has profiled Australia as a place to do business, as a country which is now a leading player in the economy of the Asia Pacific region.  In many respects this is a better profile for us to secure international business events, than the Olympic profile, for two reasons.  The impact is primarily in the economic region in which we operate, and need to grow.  And secondly, APEC is broadening Australia's profile in the right way from an overly leisure based profile to a better mix of business / leisure.  Business event decision makers are essentially business people, making business decisions.  They will naturally lean towards destinations that are vibrant, in a business sense.  This also applies to many professions. I have mentioned Australia rather than Sydney, as I believe the visitor benefits from APEC will flow broadly.  The Olympics was widely seen as a Sydney spectacular.  APEC was seen as an Australian event. "

"Follow up will be in the form of our normal sales and marketing activity.  It would be good to so some above the line marketing, but the SCVB does not have the resources to do this. "

"In terms of general tourism, I think there will be a positive impact in the Asia Pacific region. Australia was seen as welcoming and friendly to their national leaders, who no doubt will talk openly of this.  It is in the nature of many Asian countries to listen to their leaders and there were many journalists from Asia.”

Roslyn McLeod OAM, Managing Director of Tour Hosts Pty Limited told ASE that they were not directly involved in APEC but we were appointed as the PCO for 10 associated meetings.

“Apart from the one on our website – DFAT Star V, we are not able to publicise the other nine meetings.”

Roslyn noted that “APEC was hosted by the Prime Minister.  It probably had more budget dollars devoted to it than the meetings industry has seen from Federal Government support for its entire existence.  However, the PM would not have hosted the APEC Conference if it was not viewed as a wise and prudent investment to make.  We trust that this first hand experience will enlighten the PM and the Government in ways to support our industry financially  in the future.”

ICMS Australia’s office was contained within the APEC ring of steel, however that had very little effect on the company’s operations as most of the staff headed north to Cairns where the company ran the World Federation of Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine Societies Congress.

MEA CEO Linda Gaunt’s APEC experience was limited to “being stranded at Sydney Airport on Saturday evening when returning from the footy in Melbourne because George Bush was leaving town!”

Linda thinks that it is to early to tell if the meetings industry benefited from APEC.

Opera Point Events was heavily involved in the APEC summit, hosting 37 events in three days. OPE head chef Simon Sandall coordinated menus for all events including Saturday night’s Leaders Dinner in conjunction with ARIA’s Matt Moran and Guillaume Brahimi, from Guillaume’s at Bennelong. The menu featured the very finest in Australian produce for leaders and delegates including US President George W Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin.