Disha Shah Ghosh - Mumbai The Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB), the agency responsible to secure business events for Melbourne and regional Victoria, is keen to establish a long-term connection in India with travel trade partners and corporate entities. Marking its first foray in India, an MCB-led delegation is visiting the cities of Mumbai, Bengaluru and New Delhi to meet with tour operators, OTAs and corporate entities to understand their requirements and redesign the offerings to meet the needs of their Indian clientele. Beautiful Planet is the agency representing MCB in India from June 2022.
Talking to TravelBiz Monitor, Joanna Garrie, Director Corporate Meetings, and Incentives, MCB, said, “We have decided to be proactive in India after we saw the opportunity here, especially post-Covid. We have witnessed organic growth from India, especially from the incentives segment. In the past 9 months since June when we started working with Beautiful Planet, we have seen an uptick in demand for incentives travel to Melbourne. Therefore, we decided to step up our activities here. 95% of our business from India is from the corporate incentives segment, with one or two business meetings as part of their travel plan.”
Currently, MCB is focusing on three cities due to direct (from New Delhi) or one-stop flight connections to Melbourne. MCB will be offering insight about their incentive programme to the trade and corporate alike.
Garrie said, “We have an incentive programme for corporates to offset the cost of hosting 150 (or above) pax for a minimum stay duration of three nights. This will help bring the cost down of the tour; this is an important part of our messaging here in India. This programme is available for corporate groups globally.”
Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia, and it is very easy for a group to be anchored in Melbourne and undertake day trips to wineries, rainforests and watching animals (penguins) in their natural habitat, she said. “We will be looking for organising FAM trips for corporate and trade partners besides participating in ATE (Australian Tourism Exchange) to meet with Indian operators hosting large groups. We will be working closely with Visit Victoria and Tourism Australia to make the trade aware of the offerings, attractions and experience available in Melbourne.”
During their visit in Mumbai, Garrie spoke to a select group of trade professionals, enlightening them about flight options, and the key factors of an incentive tour to Melbourne.
