When it wrapped up last week, the city and region had hosted 2800 Amway Korea delegates who arrived in Tropical North Queensland in five waves on 20 charter flights.
Delegates enjoyed a myriad of Australian cultural and wildlife experiences, sampled local cuisine, and pumped millions of dollars into the tropical destination.
Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ) CEO, Mark Olsen, said this incentive rewarding Amway’s top performers from South Korea has been a huge logistical exercise to ensure delegates were wowed at every turn.
“Back-to-back charter flights with Korean Air and Asiana Airlines brought the delegates to Cairns with the groups taking over Shangri-La, The Marina Cairns for more than three weeks,” he said.
“Up to 14 Tropic Wings coaches and five limousines a day transferred groups to tours, events and their business program at the Cairns Convention Centre.
“Each group had two full days of touring taking in the Atherton Tablelands, Kuranda, the Daintree, Port Douglas and the Great Barrier Reef, enjoying wildlife experiences and nature, as well as golf and shopping.”
Fogarty Park, located adjacent to the hotel, was transformed into a picnic-style festival for each afternoon of delegate arrivals.
“They met local animals including a koala, python, crocodile and lizard and joined Indigenous workshops to learn how to paint and throw a boomerang, make jewellery and watch a didgeridoo demonstration,” Mr Olsen said.
“Hemingway’s Brewery hosted the welcome reception dinner with a band and fireworks, and the Cairns Convention Centre was the venue for the final night’s gala dinner with a stunning rainforest-themed entrance to the event, a band, dancers and aerialists.”
DMC Arinex helped deliver an authentically Australian experience, with CEO Maree Di Pasquale, saying the company worked closely with local Cairns suppliers to weave rich Indigenous culture throughout the program.
“From interactive workshops to a fireworks spectacular set to Australian anthems in local Aboriginal languages, this program guaranteed delegates a profound Tropical North Queensland journey,” she said.
Shangri-La The Marina, Cairns general manager, Golden Whitehead, said additional staff were added to the hotel’s team to smoothly manage the event’s 5536 room nights, which included three-hour turnarounds of the rooms between the departure of one wave and the arrival of the next.
“We turned the rooms around in just three hours, did 900 breakfasts and then lunch for 450 at our events centre on the turnaround days,” he said.
“We have three Korean chefs on staff and the event organisers were very happy after doing a tasting of the menu they proposed. Kimchi was shipped in but everything else was sourced locally.”
The 2025 Amway Korea Incentive was supported by the Queensland Government through Tourism and Events Queensland, Tourism Australia and Cairns Airport.