Tourism Australia has announced Adelaide will be the host city for Dreamtime 2023, its signature incentive showcase designed to increase awareness of and interest in Australia as an outstanding business events destination.

The Showcase will be the first Dreamtime held since 2019 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic and will provide the Australian industry with the opportunity to reignite relationships with qualified buyers from Greater China, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, North America and United Kingdom.

The Dreamtime program includes a destination showcase, dedicated media event, business session and networking opportunities to allow the maximum engagement between Australian 

industry and international business events buyers and media.

Tourism Australia Managing Director, Phillipa Harrison, said Dreamtime is a key event on Tourism Australia’s calendar and it will be more important than ever before as Australia continues to rebuild a pipeline of international business events.

“Dreamtime 2023 is a valuable part of our distribution activity to bring qualified planners and media to Australia to experience the wealth of new product available and our world class event delivery,” Ms Harrison said.

“Like so many of our destinations, Adelaide has undergone unprecedented infrastructure development, welcoming new product such as Sofitel Adelaide, Adelaide Oval Hotel and Eos by SkyCity and the Southern Ocean Lodge, which will reopen later this year.”

Tourism Australia’s Executive General Manager of Commercial & Business Events Australia, Robin Mack said the event has a strong record of securing future incentive business for Australia, driving real business outcomes for the industry.

“Dreamtime provides the perfect platform to demonstrate first-hand Australia’s event delivery capabilities, whilst also showcasing our strengths as a global business events destination including our iconic and diverse landscapes, world-class venues, unique experiences, and friendly people with fresh perspectives,” Mr Mack said.

“Even with the disruption of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Dreamtime 2019 delivered solid results for Australia, generating 36 business leads in three months, worth $97 million.”

Prior to the pandemic, the business events sector was a key contributor to the visitor economy, attracting 1.04 million arrivals, spending A$4.5 billion for the year ending 31 December 2019. In terms of relative size, this makes the international business events visitor the second largest yielding market for Australia, after China.

Business Events Adelaide Chief Executive Officer, Damien Kitto, said “our hard work winning Dreamtime is an exceptionally worthwhile investment for the State’s long-term economy and Business Events Adelaide. Hosting Dreamtime puts Adelaide front and centre of vital global event decision makers. It can showcase everything Adelaide has to offer – the very reasons why we are winning so many business events that deliver economic growth. Business Events Adelaide through the strong support of the South Australian Government is aggressively pursuing corporate incentive groups to further deliver economic growth.”

Dreamtime 2023 will be held from 7 to 10 November in Adelaide, with international buyers and media participating in famils of other Australian destinations pre and post the event.