Tourism Australia’s largest annual travel trade event, the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE), saw more than 1,100 buyers and sellers attending the live event at the ICC Sydney. 

After two years of travel restrictions, it was great to welcome international buyers from 20 countries back to Australia for ATE. The relationships and future business opportunities built at the event will help to spearhead the tourism industry’s recovery as we move beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Come and say G’day Media Program

78 international and domestic media participated in the reimagined media program at ATE Live, including a media welcome event, press conference, exclusive lunch and tour of the event. Across Australia, 26 bespoke media familiarisation trips are also taking place pre and post ATE making it the largest media familiarisation since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

ATE22 carbon neutral

As part of Tourism Australia’s commitment to its sustainability objectives, ATE22 was delivered as a carbon neutral event. Some 1,200 tonnes of carbon will be offset through programs that focus on regeneration. Tourism Australia has also invested in Reef Credits to improve water quality across the Great Barrier Reef. In 2020, Tourism Australia partnered with the Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia (EEAA) to develop a sustainability framework for the business events sector and as part of this work EEAA developed an event carbon calculator which allows event planners to calculate the carbon footprint of an event. Using this information to measure ATE, and working with GreenCollar, which works in partnership with Australian farmers, Traditional Owners and other land managers, to offset the footprint for ATE22.

Aviation Program

In its second year at ATE, the Aviation Program attracted more than 120 delegates from 22 airlines, 20 Australian airports, state and territory tourism organisations, Austrade, the Department of Infrastructure and Transport, and aviation consultants. 

The ATE22 Aviation Program included an airport round table meeting and airline networking evening. In addition, a series of TV-style interviews were conducted by CAPA – Centre for Aviation, and the UNSW School of Aviation participated at the event where some of Australia’s best and brightest university students competed in a Sustainable Aviation Data Science Competition. The Aviation Program was introduced in 2021 by Tourism Australia to help Australia’s international airports develop stronger connections with airlines to aid the post-pandemic aviation and tourism recovery.