CASE STUDY
STAGING A MAJOR AUSTRALIAN TOURISM TRADE SHOW DURING A GLOBAL PANDEMIC
Objectives
FCM Meetings & Events was entrusted with providing logistics to assist 375 buyers from Australia and New Zealand travel to Sydney for a major Australian tourism exhibition and trade show.
There was also a need to transport some delegates into other states to join one of 12 pre-event famils around the country, before arriving in New South Wales for the main exhibition and getting them back home again.
The Group Travel Team was an absolute dream to work with, we fully trusted that they had everything covered behind the scenes and they went above and beyond to deliver. Could not have done it without them. Trade Show Event Organizers.
Challenges
- 375 travellers
- 12 pre-event itineraries
- 1 main exhibition
- An influx of buyers wanting to participate in pre-famils making it difficult to confirm logistics until five weeks out from the actual event
- Two weeks before the event, a COVID-19 outbreak occurred in Victoria
- Seven days before pre-event famils were due to commence, border restrictions were imposed by Queensland, and Greater Melbourne went into lockdown
- More than 150 delegates, some of them already travelling, needed to be re-routed and itineraries reissued
- Three days out from the event, Greater Melbourne’s lockdown was extended and all delegates from Victoria were no longer able to attend
- An additional 80 passenger flights needed to be cancelled and tickets placed in credit
Creative & Strategic Response
FCM Meetings & Events worked tirelessly behind the scenes to:
- Rearrange delegates’ flights so they could join alternate famils not affected by restrictions, arrive in Sydney for the trade show, and return home
- Reroute itineraries that were due to transit via Victoria to ease apprehension about travelling for the event
- Provide clear and concise communication on revised travel itineraries resulting in zero travel-related enquiries at the event registration desk or via the dedicated event inbox
- Facilitate the ability to secure refunds on some airline tickets due to several schedule changes
- Work with our sister brand FCM to utilize all other credits for future travel to minimize the loss for the event client