The Australian Business Events Association (ABEA) has sharpened its advocacy push in Canberra, lodging two formal submissions that go to the heart of the industry’s future competitiveness: expand the Business Events Bid Fund and build a national data backbone for the sector.
In a measured but unmistakably firm appeal to the Federal Government, ABEA is calling on Trade and Tourism Minister Senator Don Farrell to increase the Business Events Bid Fund Program (BFP) to $9 million annually and extend its horizon to 2032. The message is clear: if Australia wants to remain in the global conference and exhibition race, the settings need to evolve quickly.
The numbers alone make the case compelling. Since its inception in 2018, the BFP has helped secure 205 successful international bids, generating an estimated $1.38 billion in economic value. That’s a tidy 53-to-1 return on investment, the sort of multiplier that usually has Treasury ears pricking up.
High-value visitors, high-stakes competition
Business events remain one of the visitor economy’s quiet achievers. In 2024, they delivered $19.6 billion nationally, with international delegates spending 56 per cent more per night than leisure travellers, a reminder that not all arrivals are created equal.
Yet beneath the headline numbers lies a more sobering trend. The latest figures for 2024–25 (to September) show 730,000 inbound business event visitors contributing $3.97 billion in expenditure, but that represents a 5 per cent fall in arrivals and a 7 per cent dip in spending year-on-year.
It’s a slide that industry insiders say reflects intensifying global competition. Canada has significantly increased its support, expanding its program to CAD$60 million, while New Zealand added NZD$6 million in new funding last year.
ABEA CEO Melissa Brown has framed the challenge in pragmatic terms.
“With certainty of funding beyond 2029, Australia could grasp the opportunity to win the next generation of high-impact international conferences and exhibitions,” Brown said.
She’s quick to remind policymakers that the value of business events extends well beyond hotel nights and catering tabs.
“Business events drive far more than tourism, they underpin innovation, trade, research collaboration and talent attraction across priority sectors.”
The data dilemma
If the funding submission is about staying competitive, ABEA’s second proposal is about staying informed. The association is advocating for Commonwealth investment in a National Business Events Data Hub and Dashboard, a centralised platform designed to bring clarity to a sector long dogged by fragmented data.
Tourism Research Australia has made strides in lifting the analytical baseline, but industry leaders say the current data landscape still captures only part of the story, focusing heavily on visitor spend while missing broader economic and innovation spillovers.
Perhaps most telling is the reliance on ageing benchmarks. The most comprehensive national study of business events remains rooted in 2019 data, pre-pandemic, pre-hybrid era, and arguably pre-reality in today’s reshaped meetings landscape. That study estimated a total economic contribution of $35.7 billion, nearly double the industry’s direct visitor economy footprint.
For Brown, the implication is obvious.
“Policy, investment and infrastructure decisions increasingly demand timely, granular and credible data. Without it, the business events industry risks under-representing its economic, innovation and trade contribution to Australia.”
A blueprint for modernisation
ABEA’s proposal outlines a staged approach: integrate existing datasets, create a consistent national measurement framework spanning venues, bureaux, and organisers, and build a secure digital platform that delivers decision-ready insights.
If delivered, the hub would replace the current patchwork of sporadic, one-off studies with a live performance dashboard enabling operators to benchmark themselves and policymakers to make decisions grounded in real-time evidence.
The association is seeking an initial $250,000 investment in 2026 to develop a concept paper and implementation roadmap, with Tourism Research Australia providing oversight to ensure alignment with existing government datasets.
In policy terms, it’s a relatively modest ask, especially when weighed against the billions the sector generates. But it speaks to a broader shift in industry advocacy: less rhetoric, more data.
Brown distils the argument succinctly.
“Strong advocacy relies on strong evidence.”
And in a line likely to resonate in both Treasury and industry boardrooms:
“A modern data foundation will allow government to see the full value of business events, not just as tourism, but as a driver of productivity, trade and national capability, as well as providing real time data to inform business decisions by operators.”
A familiar crossroads
For seasoned observers of Australia’s tourism policy cycles, the moment feels oddly familiar. The industry has long oscillated between periods of strategic investment and incrementalism. What makes this juncture different is the context: intensifying global competition, evolving hybrid formats, and a post-pandemic reset that has scrambled traditional playbooks.
Business events, once the steady workhorse of the visitor economy, now sit squarely at the intersection of trade, innovation, and soft-power diplomacy. And as ABEA’s twin submissions suggest, the sector is no longer content to be treated as tourism’s quieter cousin.
The coming federal budget cycle will determine whether Canberra views business events as a line item or a strategic lever.
