By Mathew Churchill 

Managing Director of privately operated, tourismportdouglas.com.au, Sam Cullen has recently returned from China where he spent time with two of the largest Travel Companies in Europe and the Asian giant.

tourismportdouglas.com.au's destination event arm, Port Douglas Event Management were in China for talks with the owners of the Great Wall Marathon and European Travel giant, Albatross Travel, regarding the Port Douglas 2012 Solar Eclipse International Marathon.

Mr Cullen confirmed, "talks went very well as interest in the Far North’s first annual International Marathon series, The Great Barrier Reef Marathon, was supported by the International Adventure Travel Company".

In a sign of commitment to the 'running' of the soon to be Australian icon event, Mr Cullen and Bruno Bennett of Port Douglas Event Management entered and completed the Great Wall half and full marathon respectively. "This was very well received by the Albatross Travel Group said Mr Cullen "as this marathon is respected as one of the toughest in the world."

Albatross who are already marketing the 2012 Solar Eclipse Marathon, Port Douglas to its ten’s of thousand’s of Adventure Marathon Travellers, is expecting in excess of 2,000 runners to compete in the intergalactic event.  Even with the event coinciding with a total solar eclipse, Albatross spokesperson Lars Fyhr says they are exceptionally excited about the Marathon course in Port Douglas as it will take runners on a very special Australian tropical experience through ancient rainforest, cane farmland, pristine rivers and the iconic Four Mile Beach.  "We expect all the runners to fall in love with Port Douglas as we did on our first trip here", Mr Fyhr continued.

From their relationship with Albatross, Sam and his destination event management team were then invited to present to China's third largest Inbound and Outbound Travel Company for other corporate travel and destination events.

"China is an amazing place", said Sam, who is also Vice President of the Port Douglas Chamber of Commerce, "modern China is a real eye opener with millions of corporate sector Chinese ready to explode all over the world on holidays and reward based incentive tours".

China’s last 5 years of growth have paved the way for a new flurry of corporate incentives for the 'new money' business sector.   Hundreds of companies want their executive staff to exceed targets, enticing them with free trips to world renowned holiday destinations, as a reward.

"Modern China wants to be like the West in many ways and one of these ways is certainly through the Leisure Industry.  This is a real opportunity for Port Douglas to capitalise on this incentive market", said Mr Cullen.

"China has demonstrated a growing conversion from conservative governmental practices to a more flamboyant and capitalistic approach to business incentives". he remarked.  "Having seen the demand for this first hand, with the positive reaction to our promotional material (Issues 1 and 2 of the Port Douglas Magazine and our consumer website), we have established a number of new direct communications with these companies" said Mr Cullen.

"Port Douglas, as the Jewel of the Pacific Rim, will undoubtedly serve as an ideal destination reward for this top end luxury corporate incentive", observed Mr Cullen. 

He then confirmed that, "tourismportdouglas.com.au will host its first CEO and Top Level Executives later this year".