GSTR will be attending ATE in Adelaide from Saturday 29 May to Friday 4 June. ATE, the largest travel trade fair of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere with around 600 key overseas buyers from 40 countries.

• Eastern Module: Saturday 29 - Monday 31 May
• Western Module: Tuesday 1 - Friday 4 June

The GSTR team looks forward to another busy and productive ATE.

Carole Reid attended OzTalk New Zealand. The primary purpose of OzTalk is product training with retail travel agents.

There is a high awareness of GSTR amongst the retail travel trade in New Zealand. This high awareness means that if potential customers collect brochures from the agents they will get a good profile of the experiences and accommodation available in the GSTR region. MORE

Carole Reid attended a sales mission to the USA and Canada. This mission was co-ordinated by Tourism Victoria and was attended by seven Victorian operators.

The mission included an industry update from Tourism Victoria and Tourism Australia followed by visits to key wholesalers in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, Vancouver and Seattle.

These visits included meetings with product development managers, staff training and briefings with Tourism Victoria’s North America PR agency.

The recent Victorian Roadshow to China was attended by Felicity McMeekin. The roadshow was held in Shanghai and Beijing from 12 – 16 April. This is the 7th Roadshow to China, co-ordinated by Tourism Victoria.

Twelve Victorian tourism products attended the Roadshow and provided selected Premier Aussie Specialist and Aussie Specialist agents from the key Approved Destination Status and Authorised Outbound Travel Agencies. MORE

The mission to India in late April consisted of 15 sales calls and networking opportunities in Mumbai and eight sales calls and networking opportunities in New Delhi. The meetings were held with a combination of retail agencies, wholesalers and inbound tour operators.

Awareness of the Great Ocean Road and Sovereign Hill was high and the mission was conducted during the brochuring period ensuring inclusions for both group and FIT itineraries with many of the large agencies. Opportunities continue to grow to promote GSTR to both FIT and VFR market segments.

Chris Burchett attended NATAS in Singapore, which was attended by over 60,000 consumers to plan and book their next holiday or to research their 2011 holidays.

GSTR once again demonstrated strong appeal for the consumer. Awareness and enthusiasm for the iconic Great Ocean Road, the coast and the wildlife of the Grampians remaining an important draw card into Victoria. MORE

The 2010 Australian Gourmet Traveller Awards are regarded as some of the most prestigious in Australia.

We would like to congratulate the GSTR product that have been nominated as finalists and wish them the best of luck when the winners are announced in June. MORE

We would also like to advise that Felicity McMeekin was recently appointed as a Director of GSTR.

Felicity will continue to build upon the excellent work Barbara Chalkley undertook in the Chinese and Indian markets for GSTR.

Felicity is the City of Ballarat’s Tourism Marketing & Development Manager and will bring industry knowledge and a strong network of contacts to GSTR.

For over 3 years Barbara Chalkley has been the face of Great Southern Touring Route in China and India.

Barbara can take great pride in the work she has done to develop the relatively new markets of China and India for GSTR. MORE

Tourism Australia has just released Global Market Monitor 2010.

Click HERE to download a pdf copy (1.2 MB)