Grampians Way concept awarded

A Grampians Tourism campaign has won recognition with a finalist award at Victorian Tourism Awards in Melbourne.

The group’s Grampians Way tourism concept was a finalist for a Destination Marketing category at the awards at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The Grampians Way campaign aimed to showcase the region as an aspirational destination.

Plans are for a 285-kilometre ring road circling Grampians National Park using existing local roads to connect four different local government areas.

The blueprint for the road was established after a scoping study identified a physical touring route as a means of increasing tourism to the region.

The objective of developing the route was to increase dispersal and create tourism investment opportunities while providing alternative routes around the park.

Grampians Tourism chief executive Marc Sleeman said the Grampians Way also illustrated a sense of freedom experienced when exploring the region.

He said the campaign would encourage target markets to visit the region in all seasons and discover the Grampians by focusing on the region’s core strengths: Big nature – as the home of Grampians National Park; a significant food and wine story with the Grampians Wine Region and wine village of Great Western; arts, history and culture including dark tourism offerings, connections to gold rush days, art galleries and bespoke studios; and an intriguing Aboriginal history, with 86 percent of all Victorian Aboriginal rock art being found in the Grampians.

Mr Sleeman said the Grampians Way campaign, which will continue until June 2020, was developed and co-funded in collaboration with Visit Victoria, local government partners and industry.

Mr Sleeman said the award was great recognition for the hard work of Grampians Tourism and its partners.

“I’d like to thank our amazing partners for your hard work that has resulted in a wildly successful campaign and double-digit growth in visitation to our region,” he said.