ATE is a once a year opportunity for Australian tourism businesses to meet face-to-face in Australia to negotiate deals and to show first-hand what the destination has to offer.
During ATE 2010, around 1,700 Australian delegates from 600 companies will meet with up to 700 international buyers from over 40 countries in up to 100,000 business appointments (including 40,000 scheduled appointments). The event is also expected to deliver more than $10 billion in benefits.
Tourism Australia Managing Director, Andrew McEvoy said ATE was the only trade show of its kind held in Australia to exclusively showcase Australia's tourism products to the international market.
"ATE is Australia's chance to show our tourism trade partners from around world what's new and great about Australia and why international travellers should visit," Mr McEvoy said.
"This year during ATE we will host 700 of the leading distributors of Australian holidays from around 40 countries to do just that.
"For the 600 tourism products from around the country on show at the event it is an opportunity to tell their story face-to-face with the people responsible for selling Australian holidays to the travellers most interested in visiting our country," Mr McEvoy said.
ATE returns to Adelaide for 2010 after first being hosted in the city in 2006, and will run from 29 May to 4 June at the Adelaide Convention Centre.
Mr McEvoy said ATE would help to boost the tourism industry's recovery efforts this year and help businesses return to profitable growth.
"International travellers contribute billions to the Australian economy each year and help to generate employment for around half a million Australians," Mr McEvoy said.
"'Last year global economic factors affected travel worldwide and while Australia held steady in terms of visitor numbers it was a challenging year for many tourism businesses.
"With improving economic conditions in many of our tourism source markets the timing of ATE, and our new global tourism campaign which will be launched at the event, couldn't be better to ensure that Australia is top of mind with both the travel trade and consumers around the world."
ATE 2010 has two modules covering the Eastern and Western hemisphere tourism markets. The Eastern Hemisphere module (Japan, Asia and the Gulf countries) will run from 29 May to 31 May 2010 while the Western Hemisphere module (Europe, the Americas, Gulf Countries, Africa, New Zealand and the South Pacific) will run from 31 May to 4 June 2010.
