Portland, Oregon down under

LAST night Travel Oregon and Travel Portland hosted an event in Sydney, celebrating the US destinations’ “makers” culture which encompasses creativity in food, art, outdoor leisure, music, culture and design.

Eight delegates have travelled to Australia as part of the contingent with the visit also including product training sessions with travel agents in Auckland and Melbourne as well as Sydney.

The ‘makers event’ took place in a converted warehouse space, featuring donut makers, baristas, t-shirt printers and even a temporary tattooist.

Oregon wines and cocktails were complemented with other delicacies, while the state’s year- round activity offering was also on show with representation from Mount Hood, about 90 min from Portland which is home to the Timberline, Ski Bowl and Mt Hood Meadows snow resorts.

“We wanted guests to live and breathe the Portland and Oregon experience to complement our product training sessions and further engage the trade and industry we’ve been meeting with this week,” said Heather Anderson from Travel Portland.

A special giveaway last night saw Alison O’Loughlan from Adventure World take away a backpack full of Portland and Oregon travel prizes.

She’s pictured above with Heather Anderson from Travel Portland (left) and Lisa Itel of Travel Oregon.