To me tourism falls into three broad categories – 1 visiting natural attractions, 2 visiting man-made attractions and 3 events.

Yes there are international and local visitors, business and leisure visitors – but essentially wherever they come from, and whether it is for business or leisure, visitors travel for one of those reasons.

I would love to see a breakdown of where visitor dollars are spent because I would guess that events could top the list.

From what I have seen so far the new Tourism Australia campaign totally ignores events – the whole focus seems to be on visiting natural and man-made attractions.

One of the most overlooked sectors for events is regional tourism – just think of the music festival circuit for starters.

Our friends at the Grey Nomad Awards’ team report on the Australian Regional Tourism Convention held recently in Ballarat.

Surprises from the Australian Regional Tourism Conference

The Australian Regional Tourism Convention, convened by ART, was held in Ballarat last week, incorporating the inaugural Australian Agritourism Conference. Here’s 10 surprising take-aways in the eyes of the Grey Nomad Awards’ team from this gathering of regional tourism leaders.

… and two new awards have been added to the Grey Nomad Awards

Two New Awards for Those Who Cater to Mature-age Travellers

The Grey Nomad Awards has launched two new gongs for 2022 – one that recognises those caravan and camping spots where Fido also has fun and another for stays that allow travellers to choose their own RV site.

The Australian Event Awards ceremony to be held on 23^rd November

“Following a year where we had to host the Event Awards Ceremony virtually, we are excited to be getting the industry back together, in a face-to-face environment, and being able to showcase this new venue to the industry.” says Ian Steigrad, Managing Director of Australian Event Awards.

This year, Event Awards’ Major Partner, The Jackson, will be hosting the Event Awards Ceremony on Wednesday 23 November 2022.

More details and booking

This week’s opinion piece by Gary FitzRoy looks at the changing of the guard in Australia’s expo industry.

1,000 plus years of IP is going away

 The winds of time are changing too quickly while we struggle to recover.  The announcement this week of the sale of Exponet is significant and it reminds me how in the last three years so much of the business events sector has seen accelerated change and how much knowledge and relationships are leaving the industry.

Speaking of regional music festivals this article from the SMH is timely.

‘Totally devastating’: New threat to Australia’s live music industry

Strawberry Fields, described as “four days of live music, large-scale art, workshops and wild river swimming” is held annually on the Murray River in Tocumwal, a town on the Victoria-NSW border.

The bush bash was scheduled for October 28 to 30, but after watching flood levels on the Murray River rise well into September, organisers made the call to cancel the event at the “11th hour”. It was a month out from the festival, and right before construction needed to start.

And a totally different sort of music festival in Sydney was reviewed in The Guardian

Mode festival review – ‘elevated’ dance music brings new life to Sydney’s Cockatoo Island

On a perfect spring Saturday in Sydney, roughly 3,000 people headed for a festival that most of the city knew nothing about.

Siloed in the heritage grandeur of Cockatoo Island and accessible only by private ferry, the first-ever Mode festival was sold on its lineup of “elevated dance music” and an “expansive visual arts experience”. Produced by Sydney-based promoters Bizarro, who until now have largely thrown parties in clubs and warehouses, the festival promised a rare gamble in a typically risk-averse city.