The NSW Government is supporting seven NSW tourism operators to attend the world’s largest youth and student travel conference being held in Barcelona, Spain between 20-23 September. Destination NSW Chief Executive Officer, Sandra Chipchase said the operators are being supported to attend the conference through Destination NSW’s International Industry Incentive Funding scheme which was established to help local tourism operators gain international exposure to key international travel industry representatives and media.
“Attendance at such an important conference will give all the tourism operators we are supporting valuable opportunities to gain international exposure and open up potential new tourism markets as well as build on existing markets,” said Ms Chipchase. The World Youth & Student Travel Conference is an annual youth tourism trade event for key stakeholders and organisations in youth, student and educational travel, with around 450 organisations represented by more than 800 delegates from 80 countries.
“The event will provide the ideal platform to showcase the diverse appeal of our State, highlighting the wealth of tourism experiences, events and festivals, cultural and natural attractions on offer in Sydney and regional NSW, specifically for the youth market,” Ms Chipchase said.
“The youth market is very important to us, it is worth around $5 billion a year to the NSW economy. In fact we have a renewed focus on the sector with campaigns targeting that market, including activities promoting our surf and beach lifestyle and our youth campaign launched earlier this year encouraging young people to take a journey through regional NSW.
“A presence at this international youth travel conference is really important to showcase NSW and we will also have our own NSW stand at the conference.” Destination NSW is supporting seven NSW tourism operators from across Sydney, Byron Bay, the Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley to attend the World Youth & Student Travel Conference:
- Work & Travel Company
- Wake Up Sydney Central
- Travellers Autobarn
- Lets Go Surfing (Bondi Beach)
- Adventure Tours Australia (covering Sydney, Blue Mountains, the Hunter and Byron)
- Mojo Surf (Byron)
- Nomads World Hotels (Sydney)
“The agreement will also include our sponsorship of the Golden Backpacker Awards and Adventure and Backpacker Industry Conference later this year, international trade activities and familiarisation tours, consumer marketing and research into youth market segments.”