National Restaurant Australia campaign paying dividends for Tasmanian producers

Last month Hobart hosted 80 of the world's most influential chefs and food writers at the launch of the national 'Restaurant Australia' tourism campaign.

The Tourism Australia campaign is designed to showcase Australian produce and sell Australia as a food and wine destination.

Picture : Restaurant Australia

Some Tasmanian producers who were part of the Restaurant Australia launch say they're already noticing a flow-on effect less than two months after the event launch.

Anne Bennett, marketing and communications manager of Ashgrove Cheese in Elizabeth Town, says it exceeded their expectations in a short period of time

"The spin offs were quite extraordinary, especially for us in terms of our website and search engine optimisation," she said.

"We had an increase in internet traffic, especially from the USA, Asia and into parts of Europe."

Willy Simpson of Railton's Seven Sheds brewery says he's pleased to see the rising profile of the tourism trail know as the Cradle Trail

"The best thing for us was that Southern Tasmanians visited the lovely North West Tassie and discovered the Cradle to Coast Tasting Trail."

Lindi Dornauf, of Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm and Cafe at Elizabeth Town, is already making changes to accommodate increasing numbers of Asian travellers.

She has employed a Chinese speaking staff member and incorporated more rice based meals on her cafe menu and has another staff member focussed on a social media campaign.

She says the big message for her is to be adaptive and be prepared to rapidly embrace change.

"You've just got to keep refreshing what you're doing and looking at it with new eyes because the market changes so quickly."

Source : ABC Rural  Margot Foster  January 3rd 2015