NEW AIRSHOW OPERATOR TO SPEAK AT DESTINATION SHELLHARBOUR EVENT ‘Airshows Downunder Shellharbour’ plans to be unveiled to local tourism operators
Local tourism industry leaders will descend on Shellharbour Airport on Wednesday night to learn more about the much-anticipated arrival of the inaugural ‘Airshows Downunder Shellharbour’ event next year.
Among them will be Mayors and CEOs from neighbouring councils, representatives from Destination Sydney Surrounds South, Link Airways, HARS, Business Illawarra and dozens of tourism and aviation-related business operators.
The occasion is a joint event between Destination Shellharbour and Shellharbour Airport.
Special guest speaker will be AMDA Foundation Limited CEO Justin Giddings, who will unveil plans to elevate Airshows Downunder Shellharbour – previously known as the highly successful Wings Over Illawarra – into a prestigious aviation event that will garner national and international recognition.
Shellharbour City Council announced earlier this year that the city’s annual airshow would be expanded and re-branded, promising to be bigger and better than ever.
AMDA will partner with Council through a 10-year licence agreement to hold a three-day event biennially, starting from March 2024.
AMDA is renowned for delivering world-class aviation events, including the Avalon Airshow which has been held biennially since 1992 at the Avalon Airport in Geelong, Victoria.
The Avalon Airshow is one of the biggest in the southern hemisphere and the largest in Australia, attracting more than 170,000 attendees including a significant industry exhibition.
Building on from Wings Over Illawarra, which was already an incredible event for the region, AMDA will take the newly rebranded Airshows Downunder Shellharbour to the next level.
Mayor of Shellharbour City Chris Homer said that a national and internationally significant event of this magnitude would contribute significantly to the visitor economy and help solidify Shellharbour as a premier tourism destination.
“Council is very excited to work with AMDA and welcome Airshows Downunder Shellharbour in March. A larger format airshow has great potential to boost visitation and revenue for local businesses and raise the profile of Shellharbour City as a key travel destination in the visitor economy, which helps create jobs for local people,” Mayor Homer said.
“A larger airshow will further highlight Shellharbour Airport as a destination for aviation enthusiasts and businesses across the industry, potentially leading to increased investment in the airport and the surrounding area,” he said.
While enjoying an evening of networking, attendees will have the opportunity to explore a collection of historic aircraft from the HARS Aviation Museum.
Attendees will also get to sample the delicious food from the airport terminal’s new Cove Cafe, which opened in April. Operated by Cove Catering, the cafe serves airport passengers and is also open to the public for lunch and take-away meals.
Mayor Homer noted the highly successful Shellharbour ‘Good Times’ tourism campaign, which ran from 12 August 2022 to 30 June 2023, featuring 10 key experiences in several areas across Shellharbour City.
“The website performance of the campaign was remarkable. We experienced a staggering 400% growth to the Visit Shellharbour website. Overall, Google Ads served over 47 million impressions and drove 113,000 clicks to the website,” Mayor Homer said.
“This is an incredible result from our Destination Shellharbour tourism team. I’m sure that ‘Airshows Downunder Shellharbour’ will bring even more people to Shellharbour City, further cementing our local government area as a top tourism destination,” he said.
