Dear Asia, wish you were here ...

Making up around half of the business that BESydney delivers, Asia is a highly important market for BESydney. Whilst some of us are not meeting face to face at present, we’ve made sure that our connections with, and offering to, our valued partners and clients remain ever strong.

We’re using this time to reimagine how we will re-serve this market and we look forward to working with clients again very soon. To this end, we’re planning a renewed campaign into the Asian market for post-COVID and we’re working closely with the industry and our partners to ensure that we are ready and launch at a time when appropriate for each market.

We have been working to keep connected with key industry players and our top clients, communicating with them and gathering important intel to best understand how things are in their space and the impact that COVID has had on their business.

We’ve been gathering and sharing information on Sydney and our industry’s hygiene and safety measures understanding this will a top priority for our clients in the immediate period. Sydney is focused on being COVID-safe and having the highest of health protocols in place. We’re in talks with the City of Sydney and our strategic partners and members, and we are working with the Government to bring various parties together - taking a health destination partnership approach. Australia has managed the pandemic well and the number of cases has been low relative to other countries.

In response to the disruptions and new environment, as a consequence of the pandemic, we know that we must keep relevant. During this time, in particular, we are ensuring that we are up to date on news, current affairs and assessing relevant market activity to keep on top of key motivations, concerns and changes.

This period has changed the game for the world. We will all have to learn to adapt to the new norms, to innovate and to pivot our businesses to the new order and we are working towards that.

It has given us the rare opportunity of time. Time to reconnect and reimagine. Time to think deeply about our clients and their needs. Time to unearth new experiences. Time to further develop our own team and work with our industry to be ready for tomorrow.

Coming out of a global pandemic, understandably the first and biggest concern for all travellers will be health and safety. Having suffered several months of lockdown and dip in business activities and hence revenues, clients are more likely to be cautious with their spend, but there are businesses that will still have to proceed and spend as travel and events remain a critical part of their business model.

Like most destinations, we know that it will be a competitive environment when things do start to open. But we also know that Sydney has a great reputation – its beauty, its unique experiences, its friendliness and its track record in delivering amazing client outcomes – all of which remain critical to our clients in a post-COVID environment.

Sydney is ‘tried and tested’ in terms of delivering outcomes. Our visitors and delegates know that this city will deliver for them time after time and it is a popular choice for new and repeat visitors alike. As much as some people will always want to try new things, at this time there will be a heightened desire for visitors to go back to what they know is a great experience, safe and delivers on the promise of rewarding an organisation’s most important salespeople.

Traditionally, our clients have looked for big hero activities when visiting Sydney. We are now working with our partners and the industry to look at more bespoke experiences that will really appeal, especially to repeat clients that have visited Sydney before. We are also looking at more digital tools that we can provide to assist and service our travel industry partners and clients.

We have long-standing client and agent relationships across Asia and have partnered together to deliver amazing outcomes for their most important stakeholders. Our clients and agents’ partners know Sydney and its people – our welcome, our warmth and our respect – and we look forward to welcoming the Asian market back to Sydney in the near future.

Sinead Yeo is BESydney’s Regional Director – Asia