Tourism' Australia's table for 23 million

A beachside barbecue during the Margaret River Gourmet Escape

In Tasmania's Derwent Valley, a cooking school housed in an old classroom, with grounds full of herbs and vegies, Barnevelder chooks and Berkshire piglets, has waiting lists for classes including preserving and pasta making, while an oyster farmer at Freycinet on the state's east coast plucks a plump and creamy bivalve from the shallows, slides a knife along its shell and offers the spanking-fresh specimen to a hungry visitor.

At a bustling restaurant in Brisbane, meanwhile, a young kitchen team is serving a degustation menu so experimental and accomplished it wouldn't be out of place in Copenhagen's award-winning Noma restaurant; an hour-and-a-half north on the Sunshine Coast, a farmer diligently tends an ever-expanding crop of Spanish peppers that will be delivered to some of the country's leading chefs.

Australia's sophisticated food and wine scene - the fishermen and farmers producing everything from barramundi to burrata, the world-class culinary festivals, high-end restaurants and impressive vineyards - is no secret to those who live here.

But research commissioned by Tourism Australia has found that only 26 per cent of international travellers who have never visited Down Under associate the destination with good food and wine. Intriguingly that figure rises sharply to 60 per cent among those who have visited, with Australia rating second only to France as a gourmet hot spot, ahead of Italy, Japan and Spain. More importantly, the research has found that Australia is rated the No 1 food and wine destination among visitors from China, the US, France, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Britain and South Korea who have tasted what's on offer.

These important new consumer insights, gleaned from 15 of Australia's key tourism markets, will form the basis of an ambitious marketing campaign about to be launched by Tourism Australia. In a bid to narrow the perception gap on the quality of Australian food and wine between those who have visited and those who have not, the agency will pull out all the stops to redefine and fly the flag for the country's gourmet experiences.

The Restaurant Australia initiative aims to present Australia as one of the world's greatest restaurants, combining its excellent produce, creative chefs, multicultural influences, temperate climate and unrivalled outdoor spaces in which to dine to unlock the tourism dollars that are being lost to better-known European or Asian "food destinations".

While Australia may lack the culinary heritage of some European countries, the government agency hopes that by highlighting singular gourmet experiences - such as cellar-door touring through wine regions just a stone's throw from major capital cities, dining under the stars at Uluru, gourmet trails on Kangaroo Island or deep-sea fishing followed by a beachside barbie in Shark Bay -it will dispel the myth that Australia offers little more than meat pies, run-of-the-mill steakhouses and average beer.

And with food and wine tourism one of the strongest global travel trends, the tourism authority is banking on the initiative to help it achieve an increase in overnight tourism spend to between $115 billion and $140bn annually by 2020, and to have positive knock-on effects for hospitality and tourism operators.

"Our aim is [to show that] pretty much anywhere you go in Australia you can get some amazing food and wine, from sitting in a Melbourne laneway to catching mud crabs in Queensland to dining at Quay on the harbour in Sydney," says TA's general manager of corporate affairs and strategy, Karen Halbert. "The platform, Restaurant Australia, [will show that] the whole place is a restaurant, full of amazing people, A beachside barbecue during the Margaret River Gourmet Escape beautiful places to eat and gorgeous, fresh produce."

Restaurant Australia, an evolution of the three-year-old There's Nothing Like Australia campaign that has featured in 25 countries, has been embraced by leading industry identities including winemaker Peter Gago and chefs Luke Mangan, Neil Perry and Kylie Kwong, who are members of a wide-ranging steering committee including state tourism offices and members of the tourism and hospitality businesses established to set the agenda.

"It's the most exciting initiative I've seen come out of Tourism Australia; it's showing the world that we are a real food destination," says South Australia-based food writer and television chef Maggie Beer. "We have something very special here and I do believe everyone will get behind [the initiative]."

In addition to featuring food and wine experiences and personalities far more prominently in its global advertising campaigns, TA will work with state tourism agencies under the Restaurant Australia umbrella to help businesses around the nation - from small bed-and-breakfast owners and farmers to high-end restaurants and hotels - strengthen their food and wine offerings and better promote themselves through events, media and marketing activities.

For WA restaurateur, winemaker and chef Kate Lamont, the shot in the arm can't come soon enough.

"I can personally testify to the fact that Australia's food and wine offering is one of our country's greatest assets yet, remarkably, the appeal of our culinary talent remains a secret," says Lamont, owner of a string of restaurants, wine bars and a vineyard in the Perth CBD, Swan Valley and Margaret River.

"We need to tell our story and I'm certain that this will be a marketing push that successfully captures the fresh thinking, al-fresco open spaces and flavours that define our food and wine and set Australia apart. Get this right and the benefits are enormous."

Source:  The Australian - 7 February 2014