Essentials this week… | K-pop stars Down Un der | Free EOY webinar | Peppa Pig’s Australian holiday | ATE17 Media Program | Free webinar: Video on social media | a nd more…

The hit British preschool animated TV series Peppa Pig will hit the big screen in Australia this March for a special one hour interactive cinema experience which follows Peppa on her first Australian holiday. “Our impossibly cute kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, wombats, echidnas and quokkas already do a wonderful job of luring international travellers, but we’re delighted to receive a bit of additional animal advocacy from Peppa Pig and her family,” said John O’Sullivan, Managing Director Tourism Australia. Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience - Peppa’s Australian Holiday will be released on 16 March.

More than two million Hong Kong television viewers will experience some of Australia’s most colourful food and wine offerings when one of the country’s most popular cooking series, Eating Well with Madame Wong, airs next February. Celebrity chef Madame Wong Gigi will visit Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales to meet leading local chefs and food producers and recreate her favourite recipes with seasonal ingredients. The series, a partnership with Tourism Australia, Visit Victoria, South Australian Tourism Commission and Destination NSW, will be broadcast on Hong Kong’s largest Cantonese channel TVB and will also hit television screens in Singapore and Malaysia.

Registration is open until Friday 3 February for exhibitors wishing to attend the official ATE17 Media Program in Sydney from 12-15 May next year. The event offers Australian tourism operators and organisations the opportunity to meet exclusively with international and domestic media for one-on-one appointments and attend valuable networking functions.

Tourism Australia’s social media team will share the latest video trends on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram in a free webinar on Tuesday 6 December at 1pm AEDT. The 30 minute webinar will cover the best performing industry submissions on Tourism Australia’s social media profiles and the results they created for businesses all across Australia. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions to the tea at the end of the session. Find out more and register.

Applications are open until Thursday 15 December for premium and iconic Australian experiences to join Walkabout South America 2017. The program, which includes workshops, business appointments and networking opportunities, offers the opportunity to develop and establish business relationships with product planners and decision makers representing outbound travel from Chile, Argentina and Brazil. The roadshow will take place in Santiago, Chile; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Buenos Aires, Argentina from Monday 17 April to Friday 21 April.

The Gold Coast will host one of Australia’s biggest ever business events when more than 8,000 employees from Chinese company, Infinitus, come to Queensland in 2018. Gold Coast Business Events collaborated with Tourism and Events Queensland and Tourism Australia to beat national and international competition for the staff incentive program of Infinitus, one of China’s largest personal health care companies. “We are truly amazed at the endless choices we have to help us put together a one-of-a-kind business travel incentive holiday for our delegates. Already, we are very impressed by the attentiveness of Tourism Australia and Gold Coast Tourism,” said Infinitus General Manager spokesperson Mr Jacky Hu.

The last major international business events trade show for 2016, IBTM World, opened yesterday with eight of Australia’s business events industry joining Tourism Australia's specialist business unit Business Events Australia on the Australia stand. IBTM World is held in Barcelona from 29 November to 1 December attracting more than 15,500 visitors, including planners from the conference, convention and corporate events industries. “Tourism Australia’s presence at key trade shows such as IBTM World keeps Australia top of mind with qualified international buyers and provides Australian industry with a platform to build relationships and convert business,” said Penny Lion, Executive General Manager Events, Tourism Australia. Find out more.

Tourism and Events Queensland has launched a new multimillion tourism campaign focussed on the State’s unique attractions and the locals who run them. Featuring more than 25 locations, the campaign titled “I know just the place” has launched domestically and will be rolled out into key international markets in Asia, Europe, UK and the US in 2017. Tourism and Events Queensland Chair Bob East said the campaign was designed to cut through to consumers in a highly competitive global market. “Through our market research it became quite clear that we need to elevate Queensland and showcase the range of unique experiences,” he said.

New data released by Neumob, a service for mobile technology developers, shows that 90% of the time people spend on their smartphone is within apps as opposed to surfing on mobile browsers. The report states that “we’re now in a mobile landscape in which mobile web is used primarily for search, and apps are used for everything else - including both booking and researching travel.” For more research and trends related to international and domestic tourism and travel, visit Tourism Australia’s Insight Files.