‘Restaurant Australia’ campaign hits target to increase food and wine spend

Tourism Australia’s latest campaign has hit its target to encourage holiday makers to spend more on Australia’s ‘world class’ food and wine as part of the travel experience.

When the ‘Restaurant Australia’ campaign launched in 2014 Tourism Australia set a two-year target to increase the amount people spend on food and wine in Australia by over A$500 million over a two-year period to A$4.7 billion.

Since December 2013, fuelled by the ‘Restaurant Australia’ campaign, Australia has seen spend growth of 12.6% on food and wine – an increase of $531 million – which means one in five dollars spent in Australia is on food and wine.

Tourism Australia Managing Director John O’Sullivan said that a significant increase in food and wine expenditure had made a big contribution to Australia’s record-breaking ‘international visitor spend’ figures released today by Tourism Research Australia.

“Drawing attention to the people, produce and places that lie behind our country’s exceptional food and wine experiences has been a major focus of Tourism Australia’s global marketing activities for the past 18 months, and pleasingly we’re seeing the benefits of this work clearly reflected in these latest tourism figures."

“Underpinning our Restaurant Australia campaign was an a two-year target to grow international food and wine spending by more than $500m by the end of 2015, and we’ve achieved those figures with two quarters still left to go,” he said.

Mr O’Sullivan said that one in five tourism dollars was now spent by international visitors in Australia on food and wine.

International visitors to Australia spent $33.4 billion for the year ending June 2015, an increase of 10.4% or $3.1 billion on the previous year. The latest quarter has been very strong with spend up 15%.

The 'Restaurant Australia' campaign was developed in response to the growing demand globally for food and wine as part of the travel experience to put the spotlight on Australia’s finest array of produce served in the most stunning locations in the world.

sourced:traveldailynews.asia