Following events in Melbourne and Brisbane, the Australian Council of Tour Operators (CATO) concluded its series of networking and educational seminars in Sydney on Wednesday with a Korean banquet – and promising outlook for the organisation and members.
Speaking at the event, which was sponsored by the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), CATO managing director Brett Jardine acknowledged current challenges like affordable air capacity and limited availability of industry staff as well as an expectation “that it’s going to be another 6 to 12 months before we’re genuinely able to start recognising some decent revenue”.
Despite this, CATO memberships continue to grow as the organisation “remains very active in focusing our support on the needs of Australian-based tour operators and wholesalers”.
“With membership numbers well over 200, we have experienced over 30% growth since the onset of COVID,” Mr Jardine told Karryon.
“We have recently expanded our team at CATO, including a new role that will continue to drive engagement with our current membership and seek further incremental growth opportunities.”
Mr Jardine added that the last 2.5 years had given CATO an opportunity “to help position our Australian-based tour operators and wholesalers as the lifeblood of outbound leisure travel”.
“Our approach was to demonstrate to the government the value delivered by the outbound land-supply sector,” he said.
“In collaboration with Tourism Research Australia (TRA), we were able to highlight that outbound leisure travel delivers more than $12 billion to the Australian economy, confirm we are complimentary to inbound tourism, which is a critical Australian export and showcases the significant role our sector has in underpinning airline capacity to and from our shores.”
At its Sydney event, sponsor KTO gave a glimpse of what travellers can expect when visiting South Korea.
KTO Sydney director Insook Lee led a showcase of the country’s offerings, with guests treated to a Korean banquet along with a lesson on how to make ‘Somaek’, which involves mixing soju (Korean spirit) with maekju (beer).
Donning a traditional Korean ‘hanbok’, MC, CATO vice chair and Crooked Compass founder and director Lisa Pagotto also gave her own personal account of the country where her son was born.
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