Food and Wine Festival in Australia - Research Paper Example

Analyze an existing food and wine festival in Australia Introduction: Description of the festival: Settlers Cove Noosa Food & Wine festival is one of the famous food and wine festival in Australia. It’s a three day festival on Australian food and wine festival. The festival has been held in Noosa Heads Restaurants during Friday 1st May 2009 to Sunday 3rd May 2009. “An influential line-up of leading chefs, iconic winemakers, leading food and wine media, restaurateurs and serious foodies converge on the magical setting of Noosa on Queensland's Sunshine Coast to taste, talk, debate, dine and indulge.... Noosa Style!” (Settler’s cove noosa food & wine festival 2009). This festival includes nearly 150 contributors including Australia’s famous chefs, winemakers, leading food producers of Australia, restaurateurs and Medias of Australia. Also this festival featured traditional Italian food in Australia, so that most of the people got chance to taste the Italian food. Not only this, this festival includes entertainment program. Most of the Australia’s famous entertainers made performance on the stage to make the event memorable for the people. This carnival includes more than 100 events within the three days. This includes “great live concerts including Bjorn Again, Kate Ceberano, Marcia Hines and a host of local acts and roving performers.” (Settler’s cove noosa food and wine festival n.d.). Settlers Cove Noosa Food & Wine festival provides unforgettable moment for the people who visited during the days of festival. The different types of food or dishes are from Humid, Lindoni’s, Ma'Mensa, Season, Sails, Wasabi, and Ricky's. The wines appeared for the festival are “Huon Hooke, Ralph Kyte-Powell, Jeremy Oliver, Bruce Tyrell and so many more.” (Noosa food and wine 2009). There are plenty of organizers or sponsors for this festival. The line ups are Settlers Cove, Audi, Vogue, Noosa, delicious, DeLonghi, Courier Mail, Virgin blue etc. The Beverage Sponsors include Alta, Bridgewater mill, Cape Mentelle, Rockbare, Yering, Tatachilla, Pure Blonde naked, Coca-Cola and many many more. Food sponsors include Terry’s seafoods, Vinde, Porkstar, Noosa reds, Grainage, etc. Other sponsors include style Living Magazines, Detpak, Noosa purity hire, Alsco etc. Participating Restaurants include Berardo’s restaurant and bar, Riverhouse restaurant, parcfood etc. (Settler’s cove noosa food and wine festival 2009 n.d.). Historical background of The Settler’s Cove Noosa Food & Wine Festival, formerly it was known as celebration of Australian Food and Wine Noosa Style. Last six continuous years it has been celebrated with great style. All people are enjoying this with very enthusiastic manner. It has been the hottest place during this time to enjoy. Every year it has been attracted many people. (What’s the go? 2009). The Settler’s Cove Noosa Food & Wine Festival is meant for all types of people, it includes locals, visitors from other place and the VIPs. The entire report includes role and importance of the festival, involvement of the people, planning which includes vision, goal, objectives and SWOT analysis. Then this report discusses about sponsorships, marketing, and risk management and at last evaluation and conclusion of the festival. Context: Tourism is an important sector of the economy of Australia. Also Tourism has attracted many people from different parts of the world. There are many special events conducted in the country as part of their tourism development activities. Of them the wine and food festival is an important event in many parts of the country. In the South Australian region there are many events related to wine and food industry. One of them is The Settler’s Cove Noosa Food & Wine Festival, not only these there are many other festivals also in Australia. In general tourism aims economic growth of the country, it can be obtain by providing or arranging the facilities for the visitor. As visitor spends more days the economy will increase proportionally. (Hodur & Leistritz 2007). Push and Pull factors of the festival: Travel and tourism theories are mostly based on travel motivation that is how’s one mind has been focused for travelling. The basic factors include in this are the satisfaction of the visitor after visiting the place. Factors that increase the motivation of the tourists has got more important role in attracting the visitor. In the sense of ecotourism, social psychological desire to break out from the habitual ordinary life is the primary push factor. The major pull factors which strengthen travellers to choose their destination is the attraction towards the destination attributes. The destination attributes can be natural attractions, wildlife, local life style, environment and climatic condition etc. (Chan & Baum 2007). In short affection or desire of travel result in the push factors and choice of destination or interested destination results in pull factors. Push & pull factors: Push factors are the important factors that create advancement in tourism. As a specific destination for food and wine products the tourism demand for Noosa heads in Queensland is increasing rapidly. In the Settler’s Cove Noosa Food & Wine Festival the major attraction is food and wine. Visitors are getting chance to taste different types of food items made by different chefs also the different types of wines. The facilities provided for accommodation, restaurants etc are other major attraction for tourists to select this place. The good food and wine has become the important part of the travel for humans nower days. This had become the unavoidable thing while travelling. This had made rapid increase of using food in the tourism activities. “Today's typical tourist is much more educated than his predecessors 20 years ago, he is constantly searching for new experiences and adventures, is interested in leading a healthy lifestyle and wants to experience the local culture when he goes on holiday.” (Food tourism n.d.). The pull factors include attracting features available at the destination or in the visiting place. “Noosa is renowned for its sundrenched beaches, powder white sand and a water temperature that invites year round swimming. And when combined with stylish, low-level architecture nestled against a lush, green hinterland, Noosa is the perfect setting for an unforgettable holiday experience.” (Noosa heads, Queensland 2009). Noosa beach is great location for families as it is very calm and quite. Also Noosa’s mountain top lookout gives stunning and unforgettable experience for the visitor as one can see vegetation, bird’s population, calm river, gardens, parks etc. Role of food and drink in the context of events: Role for food and wine has got important role in this context. The availability of different types of foods and wines are major attraction of the event. The majority of the visitors are coming to this festival as they are all attracted to these different types of food and wines. The preparations of these foods are made by different chefs coming form different parts. Political agenda: The main motto of conducting this type of festival is to attract many types of people from different parts of the world. By this the country can promote the tourism and gain money by attracting the people as well as promoters. Rituals, symbolic and cultural meanings: In the book named Lonely Planet Queensland & the Great Barrier Reef written by Lonely Planet Publications Staff, Alan Murphy, Justin Flynn, Paul Harding and Olivia Pozzan mentions about the Noosa in their book. Author says Noosa is a stylish resort and its one of the major attractions of Queensland. “Noosa has got natural landscape of crystalline beaches and tropical rain forest blends seamlessly with its fashionable boulevard.” (Murphy & et al 2008, p.192). The beauty of nature, landscape, trees, wild life’s, parks etc in Noosa is all eye catching for the visitors. “The Noosa River represents everything that Noosa offers – stunning scenery, a pristine environment and a relaxed, water-based lifestyle.” (Noosa boardwalk n.d.). Authenticity and commodification: The authenticity means at the time of festival the complete image of the city has been changed, the usual faces are not seen. The faces seen in the city are of different types and are from different culture. “One participant explained that “this town has the image of a laid back typical Australian sleepy town full of interesting characters that you don't find in the cities. They are interesting as they have a totally different philosophy to the city and that's what people come here for.”” (Sherlock 2002). Commodification means at the time of festival different types of food products or materials are brought into the city by different purposes. Community involvement: The involvement of community is great in this festival. Different types of communities are involved in this festival to make this festival a great successful. Planning: Vision/mission: The main vision is to focus in the area of food and wine tourism to promote tourism based activities in the area. This include by maintaining the better hospitality for the visitor that’s by providing or meeting the requirements for the visitor. The mission of this is to maximize the economic benefits by promoting the food and wine tourism. Goals and objectives (SMART analysis): The goals and objectives of conducting this festival are to attract many visitors in to their country and enrich the tourism and gain more money. The main aim is to enrich the food and wine industry. Smart analysis shows that many of the visitors enjoyed the festival very well and the response was great. “Numerous visitors enjoyed a feast of wine and food presentations by luminaries from the world of hospitality. Amongst others, sharing their knowledge and wandering through the stalls and chatting to the punters were John Lethlean, Ralph Kyte Powell, Huon Hooke, Peter Forrestal and Matt Preston.” (Queensland wine foregone at noosa festival 2009). SWOT analysis (the internal and external environmental factors): SWOT analysis looks at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats during the festival. “The strengths of tourism in the current context are those attributes which help it bring people together in non-adversarial circumstances.” (Kelly 2006, p.3). Strengths: The strength is to attract as many visitors to the place to promote the food and wine. For attracting the visitors the environment also got an important role. The beautiful places in the Queensland attracted many visitors to visit this place. “The development of wine tourism has been shown to have a possible positive effect for growers in wine producing areas.” (Howley & Westering 2008). Weaknesses: The weaknesses of the tourism management are the crowd management. Taking the attendance or who is coming and going. Taking the details regarding them is important. Also pollution control is another important factor to consider in this festival. Security concern must be strong to avoid any kind malpractices happening in the festival. Opportunities: An opportunity is to promote the food and wines to other market and also to increase the marketing of those products. Also to establish the relation with the people from the other countries. Threats: “Threats, too, lie in the external environment, present and future. They include developments which are likely to increase hostility among different social groups or contribute to a decline in tourism activity.” (Kelly 2006, p.6). Human resources: Stakeholder involvement (i.e. types and roles) Stakeholders role in this festival is make money by investing money in this festival. They can do this by different ways. Stakeholders can act as organizers or the sponsors. They will invest money in this festival and when they get profit from the festival share will go to those stakeholders who invest money. Estimated number/role of volunteers: Huge number of volunteers is present here to make this festival a great successful. With out them the festival won’t be successful. Each and every corner they are present and they are ready to help the visitors in any manner when they are in trouble. Supervision and motivation: Supervision and motivation is another important to make this festival a great successful. Every one the volunteers are highly motivated to every thing to make this festival alive. Their presence are visible everywhere and they are helping the visitor by showing the way. Also they are supervised every where to see all things are going right and nothing is going wrong. They are making ensure that each minute of the festival is going successfully without any problem. Sponsorship: Sponsors has got major role in any kind of festival. This is a great opportunity for the sponsors to enrich their business. Through this they can make publicity to their products by advertising. For these sponsors has to spent lots of lots money for advertising their products. The benefits sponsors will get from this festival is many people from the many parts of the world can view or be get aware of the product advertised. So from the single festival, that is the festival which attract lots and lots of people, most of the people will know about the product which is sponsored in the festival. This will promote their product also it will reach to the many people. These are the benefits for the sponsors. For organizers they will get lots and lots of money from the sponsors to conduct this festival. These are the one of the important thing to get money for organizing the festival by including more and more sponsors. As more and more sponsors come, more and more money the organizers will get. Marketing: “Competitive analysis of destinations is rapidly gaining in importance in the strategic positioning and marketing planning of destinations. Thus far, relatively few tourism studies have utilized competitiveness as an assessment tool.” (Faulkner, Oppermann & Fredline 1999). Tourism encouragement council has been concentrated on the destination were majority of the visitors are visiting. They will try to make this destination more attractive to attract the visitors. The Settlers Cove Noosa Food & Wine Festival is famous for different types of food and wines. The main aim of this festival is to promote or market their brands in the festival to get more recognition in the field of different products. Legal and risk management: In this Settlers Cove Noosa Food & Wine Festival, various kinds of risks are involved. The major risk is associated with safety of the visitor. For this as many volunteers are kept to ensure the safety of the visitor and also to help the visitor when they are in trouble. Ensuring the food safety is another very important thing to consider in the food and wine festival. For this adequate measures need to be taken before hand. Other than the volunteers the security has been kept to make sure nothing is going wrong in any where and every thing is going in right manner. Evaluation of the festival: “Wine tourism is still an emerging phenomenon both in terms of its commercial contribution and as an expression of the social pathology of tourists.” (Dunstan 2007). Festival evaluation is very important to understand the mistake that had made at the time of conducting the festival. The Settlers Cove Noosa Food and Wine Festival have bought outstanding and merry outcomes. The main outcomes got from the festival are collaboration by all the wine and food industries with other industries, leadership among the participants to improve their value visits of many visitors from other countries, visits of many VIPs, artists, musicians, coming of big brand leaders etc. The evaluation of the festival can be measured in different ways or different ways can be adopted to know the overall response of the festival. It can be done by raising few questions and finding answers, such as whether the conducting of the festival raised the product awareness and whether the region has attracted many tourists. Whether the resources used in the festival are enough or not and also the planning and organising of the festival are effective or not, whether any re-thinking is needed in part of the management for conducting the festival next time. Some of the social, cultural, economical and environmental impacts of this festival are as follows: 1. Festival helped in increasing the awareness of the products and region. It’s a great boon for the products of this region and this has increased the marketing capabilities of the product. 2. Increase in the employment rate in the region because of tourism. It has helped in the local employment. By taking tourism as an industry, the Government helps regional development through employing more people. 3. There is coordination among the participants of the festival. The coordination joined by numerous businesses people, civic groups, churches and individuals to stage the various activities. Also there is coordination from voluntaries and military officials. The full community works unitedly and jointly. 4. Promotion of wine and food tourism. Increasing the marketing of the products. Collaboration in food and wine industry with other tourism stakeholders. The estimation of the exact number of visitors is difficult. “The nongated and multiple entry point character of many destinations makes it difficult to accurately estimate visitor attendance.” (Kelly etal 2006). A modelling procedure could be used for estimating the visitor’s attendance. Conclusions and Recommendations: There is no doubt that festival was successful in all aspects. The festival has brought great advantage in food and wine industry. The festival helped in the Collaboration of different products from the other countries. Also market value of the product has been increased a lot. The strategy for improving the festival is by managing the crowds properly. Also keep track of the visitors who are visiting the festival. Attendance system must be implemented. 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