by Mat Churchill

The World Youth and Student Travel Conference is being held in Beijing in October and Tourism NSW has announced it will fund a group of up to 10 people from various tourism organisations to attend.

The purpose of the conference is to better understand the changing needs, characteristics, and motivations of young travellers.

 
The youth market is vital to the Far North with young people travelling more than ever. And with local backpacker accommodation, tour operators, restaurants and cafes eager to attract travellers to our area, the conference provides a great opportunity to better understand what young people want in a holiday destination.

Tourism Queensland are yet to commit a resource to attend, but stated that their representative in China may attend.

Editors comments: It’s interesting to see that TQ is ‘possibly’ sending their Chinese representative to this Youth Convention whereas Tourism NSW is sending an entire team.  I’m sure I recall that the Youth market was one of Tourism Queensland’s highest priorities just a short while ago. Is our absence a sign that we no longer consider youth to be a priority.  My personal view is we (Queensland) should be at this convention ‘en masse’ learning everything we can about this evolving new market. Comments please…