Cairns-based personal travel managers, Kellie Grace and Patty Poutanen, exceeded their own expectations when they opened the doors to their inaugural Cairns travel expo last month. The event drew an estimated 1500 attendees and has already resulted in almost half a million dollars in confirmed bookings.
“In addition, almost 900 leads have opted to receive our newsletter.” Grace reports.
The expo was the first major collaborative effort by the two PTMs, and although they were able to draw on previous experience in large-scale event management, they also acknowledge the support provided by TravelManagers’ National Partnership Office (NPO) team.
“We especially want to give a huge shoutout to our marketing superstar, Joel, who supported us in so many different ways,” Grace confirms. “Our event would not have looked so polished without his help!”
Grace notes that strong supplier relationships were also pivotal to the expo’s success, with more than 30 major suppliers, including airlines, tourism boards and tour companies, represented on the day.
“Cairns Airport were a local standout,” she reports. “As well as attending on the day, they helped to spread the word by reaching out to their 50,000-strong database and posting about the expo on their social media accounts. The interest they generated had a massive snowball effect, with more and more suppliers eager to take part.”
According to Grace, demand for holidays in Britain, Europe and Japan remains high, while the level of interest in cruise holidays has the pair already thinking about creating a separate expo event that focuses solely on cruise.
“Our goals for the expo were originally quite low-key: we wanted to generate new leads and enquiry while getting our names out in the community,” Grace notes. “We thought we might attract up to 500 attendees, but we ended up with around 1500 visitors throughout the day.”
“The support we received from locals and suppliers alike has made all the late nights and hard work worthwhile.”
