Alice Springs is one of seven finalists in the running to host an international Social Media Tourism Symposium (SoMeT) on July 17 and 18, 2013.
The conference is being held in Australia after several successful events in the United States.
Alice Springs had been picked as a finalist along with Brisbane, Cairns, Margaret River, Melbourne, Townsville and Wollongong, with an online voting competition to decide who will host the event.
Look at what Territorians achieved by voting for Tiger to return to Alice. Hopefully we can do it again.
The event would see 200 influential tourism marketers descend into Alice Springs, with delegates active on social media channels throughout the conference, promoting Alice as a tourist destination to the world.
Given that Tourism NT is pushing aggressively into social media over the next 12 months, and Tiger Airways is flying into Alice Springs again, this is a superb opportunity to continue revitalising the Red Centre.
I encourage everyone from Alice to jump online and use people power to once again snare a major coup for the town.
Nearly 7,000 tweets were posted from 760 different contributors when the symposium was held in El Paso, Texas, reaching nearly one million people with over 10 million impressions.
Blog posts, TV and press coverage, and other social channels like Facebook and Instagram were also used to promote the host destination.
Attendees at SoMeT Australia in 2013 are expected to be mainly from the Asia-Pacific region.
Votie at www.facebook.com/sometourismopens on Monday, February 18 until Friday, February 22 at 5pm EST, with one person eligible for one vote a day.
Alice Springs’ bid to host the event was submitted by the NT Convention Bureau, the business events division of Tourism NT.
If selected as the host destination, the conference will be held at the Alice Springs Convention Centre and involve several local business and tourism operators.
Matt Conlan
Minister for Tourism and Major Events