ADELAIDE
The stars align
After years of talking up Adelaide’s capacity as a major player in the meetings sector the stars have finally
aligned, with the city set to welcome both its first mega-incentive group and major international convention,
discovers Sheridan Randall.
The decision by the organisers of the
Perfect China mega incentive to increase
their initial group size from 200 to 3000
after a site visit to Adelaide was perhaps
the ‘aha’ moment when the city knew
that things were never going to be the
same. And surprisingly it wasn’t the wine
that was the kicker, as they didn’t want
wineries on the itinerary.
“At the clients request we weren’t able to
showcase our wineries which enabled us to
highlight our fresh food, our wildlife encounters
within close proximity to the city, and unique
experiences in the Adelaide Hills and along
our pristine coastline,” says Adelaide
Convention Bureau CEO Damien Kitto.
“It certainly challenged the destination’s
internal perception of what we have to offer.
Taking out the jewel in Adelaide’s crown
forced us to highlight other elements that
might not typically get the spotlight they
deserve. When you step back and consider
our non-wine attractions including long white
sandy beaches 20 minutes from the city, an
amazing food basket in the Adelaide Hills or
natural wildlife experiences such as cuddling
10 Convention & Incentive Marketing, Issue 3, 2017 www.cimmagazine.com
a koala (South Australia is one of just seven
places globally offering this activity), you
are able to easily produce a high quality and
diverse incentive program.
“We’ve seen time and again that Adelaide
tends to delight and surprise once people
visit it and see the changes that have
occurred here recently, and this site
inspection was further evidence of this.”
The strategy to go after the larger
international incentive groups was kickstarted
when Adelaide hosted Dreamtime in 2015.
“It was the beginning of a long-term