The North America New Product Workshops being held on the 25th and 26th March 2010 in Los Angele provides the opportunity for new export-ready product to develop key contacts, important relationships, product distribution and valuable insights into the North America Travel market. 

This also gives Marianna and Luigi from Shantara Resort and Spa the opportunity to not only educate the Agents on their accommodation property but also on the Port Douglas region and the incredible amount experiences offered in the area, with the Great Barrier Reef, Daintree Rainforest, Four Mile Beach to name but a few.

Due to limited capacity, registration is limited to only 5 participating operators per sponsoring state & territory, or a maximum of 30 Australian operators. Shantara Resort & Spa Port Douglas have been selected in Queensland for this great opportunity, and with only two years attendance allowed by an Australian Product company this is a great achievement to be selected.

The aim of the New Product Workshop is to introduce new Australian export-ready suppliers to the North American Market. New Australian suppliers are defined as companies that have not previously participated in a North American sales mission, including OZtalk North America, and do not have existing preferred supplier relationships with North American wholesalers. Further definition is subject to you state or territory tourism organization.

By traveling over to North America Marianna and Luigi hope to create an opportunity for new Australian product suppliers that have limited or no distribution in North America to promote their product. This workshop provides a 2-day program with approximately 25 product planners from tour wholesale companies in attendance. This also offers the opportunity to Australian product suppliers to meet one-on-one with product decision makers from key North American wholesale companies.

The week before the North American trip for Shantara, The European New Product Workshop Being held from the 16th to 18th March 2010 in London with Shantara Resort and Spa Port Douglas being represented by Sharyn Brydon from Livingston Tourism Marketing. Sharyn was able to do the workshops for Shantara last year, as they were also successful in being selected, which resulted in a very successful outcome.

The New Product workshops are for new accommodation properties only and only two applications are permitted similar to the North American Workshops.

This workshop goes over three days for in-market briefing and is exclusively for Australia’s new tourism products and product managers from key wholesalers and tour operators in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Nordic and European markets. The event provides an opportunity for Buyers to meet with exciting new Australian product in a convenient and efficient way. 

The Event objectives for these workshops are:

• Provide an opportunity for up to 32 of Australia’s new tourism product to introduce themselves and conduct one-on-one workshop appointments with key contacts in the UK & European markets;

• Create an event format and environment that is informative and mutually beneficial for both Australian sellers and in-market product managers;

• Encourage the building and strengthening of business relationships between the Australian, UK and European industries;

• Increase awareness of Australia’s new product and strengthen Australia’s key travel experiences;

• Highlight the diversity of Australia’s tourism experiences and;

• Facilitate business opportunities for participating delegates and provide a forum that is conducive to establishing new contacts and potential business.

The event format for The European New Product Workshop 2010 is a three day event to be held in London commencing with an afternoon market briefing for Australian new product.  This will be followed by two days of one-on-one workshop appointments (approximately 15 minutes each) with Product Managers which will be conducted on a rotation basis.

The event provides a forum for Australia’s export ready tourism products to:

• Attend a market briefing assisting specifically with new product development;

• Conduct workshop appointments with product managers from key wholesaler/tour operators who actively sell Australia as a holiday destination;

• Establish beneficial industry relationships and;

• Introduce new product and experiences into the market.

Consumers in the UK, Nordic and European markets are sophisticated travelers who demand diversity in their holiday experiences and tourism product options. The European New Product Workshop provides an opportunity to refresh and expand Australia’s tourism experiences in the minds of key decision makers.

Marianna and Luigi hope to start new relationships with the Product Managers/Travel Agents and consumers and to give them confidence of the property and that Port Douglas is their preferred destination when making their holiday decision.

These workshops will hopefully provide more distribution in Europe and the USA, via either Travel Agent, brochures into retail outlets, web sites, magazines and or any other form of exposure.