The Margaret River Gourmet Escape Events

Introduction

Many people enjoy fun and drinks after a long period of work. However, it is sometimes challenging to get all the necessary fun in one place. The Margaret River Gourmet Escape is a remarkable event that provides the opportunity for both local and international people to celebrate food and drinks, reference to Connell et al. (2016). This event takes place in November each year in South West Australia. Every festive program goes up to four days, with the audience enjoying food and drinks. The program was launched in 2012, however, since it was launched, it has provided the cool atmosphere and remarkable landscape for people to share over seventy thousand different types of foods.

Overview Of The Program Since 2013

In every year, the program attracts different local and international chefs and personalities. In this part of the assignment, it is going to elaborate on the growth and development of the program since 2013.

2013 Event

According to Gannaway (2017) this year, this festive event took place between 22nd November and 24th November. In every year the event has different chefs, in this year 2013, the Siemens Home Appliances took the center stage of the event. According to the statistics, twenty-five, both local and international food, including wine celebrities, were present at the event. These foods and celebrities comprise the world well stage groups. The event was so inspiring and full of funny things, which made the Margaret River Gourmet Escape to gunner top ten positions as one of the remarkable places in the world. In addition to that, the program comprised very talented people, and this made it be named in the world magazines as one of the vital festival events going on in the world in reference to Gibson (2014). Actually, the World magazine rated the event in the top sixteen list of essential events in the world. Besides that, the presented chefs prepared the best lunches and delicious dinners as the soft music was going around the event.

2014 Event

This year, the remarkable festive event was held between 21^st November to 23rd November. In this year, there were several improvements in the event including new places of staging such as the beach, forest, and vineyard. Besides that, there were many new faces, which comprised Ashley Palma, Paul West, Ben Milgate, and Massimo Bottura, among other new faces, according to Higgins-Desbiolles (2017). The chefs who took center stage in this event included Heston Blumenthal. This experienced chef prepared a fat duck from outside the United Kingdom. For the best achievement, Heston was accompanied by other experienced chefs such as Clare Smith and Jonny Lake, among others. There was a beautiful forest setting prepared for the event. Many could enjoy solely cooked meat in these cool places. Having such a joyous event, it was ranked as the top fifty events and a special award was set aside for it.

2015 Event

Littman (2016) says that this event took place starting on 19th Thursday, November, with several chefs, such as Rick Stein, Marco Piere, and Matt Stone, among other experienced chefs. Several foods were displayed, including the coffee drinks. The aroma of the delicious food covered all over the beautiful scenery of South West Australia.

2016 Event

It took place between the 18th to 20th of November with several outstanding foods and drinks. The chefs who were present included Peter Gilmour, James Halliday and Rick Stein, among others. The venue of the event was Leeuwin Estate and the environment was filled with delicious wine and food from the experts in reference to Mak et al (2017).

2017 Event

This remarkable event took center stage between the 16th to 19th of November. The known chef from Canada, Roger Mooking, proved his skills in preparing the best delicious meals ever. Many people had the opportunity to interact with the chefs while they were sharing their knowledge of food preparation. On the other hand, people enjoyed wine and drinks from the world, talented chefs.

Question 2

This event uses various planning strategies to promote Margaret River as gastronomic tourism in terms of the local food and wine industry. These strategies are grouped into domestic and international strategies.

Domestic Strategies

Margaret River is famous for producing excellent food and drinks. There are many strategies in place to promote the drink industry locally. There is a wide range of customers on social media. From that finding, the digital team has created a social media platform known as the restaurantaustralia.com to promote the products. This website allows the local people to view the available drinks in Margret River. Secondly, there is a wine and food campaign strategy at the grassroots. The local people are taught the available wines and drinks to increase the number of visitors to the event. Consequently, there is a cooperative strategy established in the forest region. The cooperative involves the local farmers and producers in the region. In this union, there is production and marketing of the farm produce sufficient to the locals. Lastly, there are locally organized events that aim at promoting the wine industry to the locals. The events are continuously updated on the website to enable the local community to prepare and cheer the drinks.

Internationally

On the part of international marketing, the strategy focuses on the countries in South East Asia such as Indonesia. The accessibility to these countries is very easy due to the international airport. There is a trade partnership with the wholesalers and the airlines on how to go and educate the consumers in other countries. The campaign aims to create awareness of the available drinks. Besides that, the customers coming to these events are given free travel packages at the airport. Other digital campaigns cover international countries. The campaigns are aired through social media to inspire tourists to join the event. In the last part, there is direct marketing of the wine and food in this event to the international countries. The strategy allows more people to get to know the wine and food industry in the event.

Question 3

Nieves & Segarra-Ciprés (2015) say that there are some issues that have an impact on the future of this event; these include economic, environmental, social and political issues. On matters of politics, there have been some government announcements and legislation that will affect the event. For instance, the government had announced that the event venue would be different beginning in 2019 in reference to Mitchell et al. (2015). The event will be in two places, the Margaret River and the Swan Valley. The announcement may cause some future confusion, leading to low turnouts. Secondly, there are several environmental legislation enacted by the government. Anybody coming to the event in the future must respect the laws.

The management of this event must increase their budget to ensure that everything that may be polluting the environment is put under control. On the side of economic issues, the main factor that has an impact on the future of this event is the fall in the value of the Australian dollar. When the value of the dollar falls, it means that the management of the event may not collect much from the tourists. In addition to that, another economic issue is the lack of proper earnings from the local people. As stated earlier, this event is not only organized for international tourists but also for the local people.

It is, therefore, essential for the people to have a good source of earnings to make them come to this remarkable event, according to van der Rest (2015). The awards that are given at the event should not only go to the tourists outside but also to the locals. If a change in earning rate happens, people will not manage to come to the event. Consequently, on the environment matter, the infrastructure in the place affects how people attend the event. When the area improves in terms of infrastructure, many local and international visitors should be expected to come. However, if the security and housing in the area are of low quality, it might lead to a drop in attendance. The other thing is the weather change. People differ in how they adapt to the weather; this is also an environmental factor that may affect the event. Apparently, on the part of social matters, the factors that may affect the event may be racism and tribalism, among other factors. When everybody is welcomed in the event without priority, more visitors will come, however, if there is favoritism it may lead to drop in the number according to Roglić (2017).

Question 4

Walsh (2015) says that when the management of this program wants to support the development of astronomic tourism in Margaret River, some activities should be incorporated during the event. For instance, when organizing the event, there should be time for the upcoming chefs. In the past years, the event has always hosted experienced chefs but forgot the upcoming teams. There should be a program to identify the upcoming chefs in the local area plus all the international team. If the program is initiated, many people will feel inspired to come to this event. On the side of food, the team should incorporate locally-made beers and provide them to the international group, according to Xiang et al. (2015). In addition to that, internationally-made food should also be brought into the program. However, the accessibility of the entry tickets should be made possible. There should be a local shop for selling the tickets; this will increase awareness of the event.

Reference

Connell, J., Dufty-Jones, R., & Connell, J. (2016). Soft country? Rural and regional Australia in country style. Rural Change in Australia: Population, Economy, Environment. Routledge, London/New York, 211-234.

Gannaway, K. (2017). Halliday Awards recognise pioneering Yarra Valley winery. Australian and New Zealand Grapegrower and Winemaker, (645), 24.

Gibson, C. (2014). Rural place marketing, tourism and creativity: entering the post-productivist countryside. Rural Change in Australia. Population, Economy and Environment, 197-210.

Higgins-Desbiolles, F. (2017). Food tourism as a pathway to decolonisation and alternative futures.

Littman, M. (2016). Moon Memphis. Moon Travel.

Mak, A. H., Lumbers, M., Eves, A., & Chang, R. C. (2017). The effects of food-related personality traits on tourist food consumption motivations. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 22(1), 1-20.

Mitchell, J. C., Mendelson III, J. R., & Stewart, M. M. (2015). George Bernard Rabb. Copeia, 103(4), 1086-1092.

Nieves, J., & Segarra-Ciprés, M. (2015). Management innovation in the hotel industry. Tourism Management, 46, 51-58.

Roglić, J. (2017). USPOREDBA PROMIDŽBE GASTRONOMSKE PONUDE STRANICE TZ SDŽ SA SLUŽBENOM STRANICOM TZ ZAPADNE AUSTRALIJE: Završni rad (Doctoral dissertation, University of Split. Faculty of economics Split.).

Van der Rest, J. P., Wang, X. L., Schwartz, Z., Jooste, M., & Koupriouchina, L. (2015). Book review-Hotel revenue management: from theory to practice.

Walsh, S. (2015). City of Busselton. Australasian Parks and Leisure, 18(4), 14.

Xiang, Z., Schwartz, Z., Gerdes Jr, J. H., & Uysal, M. (2015). What can big data and text analytics tell us about hotel guest experience and satisfaction?. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 44, 120-130.