The Australian Business Events Association (ABEA) has lodged two formal submissions to the Federal Government related to expanding the Business Events Bid Fund Program and to help establish a National Business Events Data Hub and Dashboard to support the collation and transparency of key data across government and industry.
ABEA CEO Melissa Brown has called for the Hon Senator Don Farrell, Minister for Trade and Tourism, to increase the Business Events Bid Fund Program (BFP) to $9 million per year and extend the program beyond its current horizon to 2032.
From 2018, the BFP has generated $1.38 billion in economic value from 205 successful bids. It currently returns 53:1 on investment. In 2024 alone business events contributed $19.6 billion to the visitor economy, with international delegates spending 56% more per night than leisure visitors.
Despite this, Australia is losing ground as competitor destinations significantly increase their bid support. Canada has expanded its dedicated program to CAD$60 million, while New Zealand secured an additional NZD$6 million in 2025.
Latest data shows that in 2024–25 (to September), business events delivered more than 730,000 inbound international visitors and $3.97 billion in expenditure. However, this represents a decline of 7% in expenditure and 5% in visitors compared with the previous year, highlighting the urgency of sustained investment.
“With certainty of funding beyond 2029, Australia could grasp the opportunity to win the next generation of high-impact international conferences and exhibitions,” Ms Brown said.
“Business events drive far more than tourism, they underpin innovation, trade, research collaboration and talent attraction across priority sectors.”
ABEA’s second submission calls for Commonwealth investment to establish a National Business Events Data Hub and Dashboard, addressing long-standing gaps in how the sector is measured and understood.
Melissa Brown – ABEA CEO
While ABEA welcomes the work of Tourism Research Australia, the current data landscape captures only part of the industry’s value, largely focusing on visitor spend. The most comprehensive national study of business events remains based on 2019 data, despite the sector undergoing significant transformation through COVID-19 and rapid technological change. This study estimated the total contribution of business events to the Australian economy at $35.7 billion, nearly double its contribution to the visitor economy.
“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.
“ABEA proposes a staged project to integrate and enhance existing datasets, establish a nationally consistent data framework across venues, bureaux, organisers and suppliers, and deliver a secure digital platform providing decision-ready insights to government and industry,” said Brown.
The proposed hub would enable timely and responsive performance tracking, reducing reliance on infrequent, costly one-off studies and would enable operators to benchmark their performance against their peers.
To commence the project in 2026, ABEA has requested an initial investment of $250,000 to develop a concept paper and implementation roadmap, with Tourism Research Australia providing oversight to ensure alignment with existing government datasets.
“Strong advocacy relies on strong evidence.
“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,” said Brown.
For more information, visit www.abea.org.au
