Australia Next Returns to Sydney in 2027 After Three-Year Run Across Australia

Australia Next to Resume Biennial Format in Sydney

Tourism Australia’s incentive showcase, Australia Next, will be held in Sydney/Warrane in December 2027. The event will bring international business event planners back to Australia to experience business events, products, and infrastructure.

Australia Next will return to a biennial schedule after three consecutive editions in Adelaide/Tarntanya in 2023, Cairns/Gimuy in 2024, and Melbourne/Narrm in 2025. The series was delivered to support industry recovery and build a pipeline of international business events.

Tourism Australia Acting Managing Director, Robin Mack, said hosting the event in three consecutive years has secured business leads. “As we emerged from the pandemic, we made a strategic decision to increase the frequency of our incentive showcase and hold it three years in a row to help turbocharge the industry’s recovery, and that’s what we have done,” Mack said.

Mack added that the Melbourne showcase contributed to this momentum. “We want to thank the Melbourne Convention Bureau for being an outstanding host of Australia Next in 2025 and we are confident what planners have seen in Melbourne and on famils around the country will pay dividends for our industry.”

He said the event will now return to a biennial cycle. “Hosting the showcase each year since 2023 has allowed us to highlight so much of the new product on offer around the country, and now that we have had the chance to do that, we will return to the regular cycle of every two years.”

Mack said the event will return to Sydney. “We can’t wait to welcome international business events planners to Sydney in 2027. This will be the first time international business events planners have been to Sydney for Tourism Australia’s incentive showcase in sixteen years and Business Events Sydney has plenty of new product to show.”

Business Events Sydney Chief Executive Officer Amanda Lampe said the timing aligns with new developments. “With our second international airport coming online at the end of next year, and the resultant increase in 24-hour air capacity and new routes to Australia’s gateway city, we are very excited to be able to welcome the global incentive community to Sydney in 2027,” Lampe said.

Lampe said Sydney’s meetings sector is expanding. “Sydney’s corporate and incentive meetings business is growing exponentially, and with it, the dynamic range of wonderful new experiences and top notch hotel and event infrastructure, giving reasons for companies to return to Sydney time and time again. Whether it’s a new take on beloved favourites - the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House, or completely new infrastructure like the Sydney Fish Market and the Waldorf Astoria, we can’t wait to offer international buyers a first-hand experience of the new Sydney.”

Australia Next 2027 will be delivered by Tourism Australia in partnership with Business Events Sydney.