Tourism Australia details FAM during Vancouver sales mission

Hard on the heels of a recent sales mission to Vancouver by Australia tourism suppliers, Tourism Australia has announced that it has launched this year’s edition of its G’day Australia 2024 FAM trip.

 G’day Australia 2024 will be held this year in Perth/Booloo, Western Australia from Oct. 11-13.

It will be a combined training workshop and familiarization event held exclusively for Aussie Specialist travel advisors from retail agencies and wholesale travel companies/tour operators from all of Tourism Australia’s key markets, including Canada.

Travel advisors who want to apply to attend the trip must read the G’Day Australia page and websites thoroughly and complete the “Introduction to Australia Curriculum” and the “Western Australia Training Course” before submitting their application to be eligible. 

About the FAM 

Agents are invited to submit their applications by May 26, 2024. More info is available here.

The participation fee is C$700, including accommodation, workshop and fam trip program activities and international round trip flights from Vancouver. 

The recent tourism sales mission to Vancouver was dubbed “Mates of Australia” and it was conducted by Australia tourism suppliers based both there and here in YVR. These included reps from the Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Qantas Airlines, Tourism Australia and the tour company ANZCRO.

“This special event was only planned for Vancouver,” said Gustavo Inciarte, the Tourism Australia account manager in Canada. “Vancouver is a very important market for trade partners and travel advisors developing business in Australia.”

The mission partners reviewed news from each of their regions and specialties, as part of the event presented at the D/6 Lounge at the Parq Vancouver Casino Resort.

 News and updates for 2024

Travel advisors also heard news on the country as a whole including that, in 2023, visitations to Australia from Canada had reached 83 per cent of Canadian visitations posted in 2019.

A 100 per cent recovery is predicted to be reached at some point during 2024.

Australia is a strong candidate for Canadians who are thinking about a holiday destination, coming in sixth behind top favourites Italy and France, followed by the USA, Japan and the Caribbean – but finishing ahead of the UK in the Tourism Australia survey. 

And from Qantas came word that the airline is operating three flights per week to Sydney from Vancouver, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Operating on the route for Qantas is a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which carries 236 passengers across three cabins.

It features the latest version of the airline’s Business Suite, as well as a next generation Premium Economy seats and improved Economy seats with extra storage compartments and more legroom.