To showcase our region’s amazing conference opportunities, the Blue Mountains Accommodation and Tourism Association (BMATA), the Fairmont Resort Leura, Blue Mountains City Council (BMCC), among others, combined their resources in February to exhibit at the Asia-Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME) in Melbourne.
The Blue Mountains is good at hosting conferences. In 2018, at least 600 conferences were hosted by the Fairmont Resort and the Escarpment Group alone, which were attended by thousands of delegates. Many of these delegates choose to stay extra nights in the Mountains before or after their event to take advantage of the amazing activities on offer here.
BMEE’s own conference, the Australian Bushfire Building Conference, was established by the BMEE after the 2013 bushfires. Over several years it has become a unique and nationally significant symposium, attracting architects, designers, builders, scientists, regulators, engineers, planners and industry suppliers involved in bushfire building design and construction. This sector is growing in significance around the world with regions previously immune to bushfires finding that it can happen to them.
In 2018, Destination NSW became a strategic partner, providing funding to publicise and grow the business event, while at the same time encouraging delegates and their partners and families to spend extra nights as visitors to the Blue Mountains. In 2019 we are grateful to once again have the support of Destination NSW, along with our long-term major partner the NSW RFS. This funding is critical in helping us build an event with a strong reputation nationally and internationally and which will generate revenue for local businesses and showcase our beautiful region.
The current Blue Mountains Destination Management Plan, driven by BMCC and completed in 2017, identifies a conference centre as a priority project for the region. Some conference hosting suppliers find that organisations and businesses wanting to have their conference in the Blue Mountains cannot be accommodated, due to the difficulty with accommodating large events. At BMEE we believe that the establishment of a conference centre with accommodation for up to 850 people, will drive the local economy and provide flow-on effects to surrounding areas and will deliver growth to support businesses.
We will continue to focus on supporting our diverse Mountains economy, and we’re working to encourage investment and growth in all areas of business. As the visitor economy is currently the Blue Mountains biggest export and a clean industry compared with many others, it provides further scope for strengthening our local region with the ultimate outcome of more jobs for local residents.
- Bernard Fehon OAM is CEO of Blue Mountains Economic Enterprise
