Promoting tourism through food
The state of Victoria will push its tourism products such as self-drives through its food and is getting its partners to weave these into the itineraries.
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The state of Victoria located in the south-east part of Australia has always been popular among Indian tourists due to its capital city of Melbourne. In order to increase numbers, the government body that promotes tourism in the state – Tourism Victoria – will now focus on reaching the Indian hearts through their stomachs. Celia Ho, Regional Manager (South and South East Asia), Visit Victoria, was in Mumbai recently to meet the trade partners and discuss its focus areas for this new financial year that starts July 2016.
The Maharashtra Tour Organisers’ Association (MTOA) recently met up with concerned authorities of two popular states – Kerala and Himachal Pradesh – in order to iron out the problems its travel agent members have been facing with their clients.
Sudhir Patil, President, MTOA, revealed that the team from the association met U. V. Jose, Director, Kerala Tourism Board to discuss various issues. “One of the major issues on the agenda was that of the liquor policy implemented by
She says, “We want to focus more on food since it is getting popular in India. We are keen to work with a few key trade partners to promote the ‘Melbourne Food & Wine Festival’ that is held in end the Kerala Government and the consequent high-cost permit requirement for the same, which is having negative impacts on the MICE and inbound movement in the of February for two weeks at different venues in the city. Its opening event ‘The World’s Longest Lunch’ is also a big draw and we will push these two events in India. The trade is also very keen to promote this as part of their Australian itinerary this year.”
Ho says Victoria is also at road trip self-drive routes. One is the ‘Great Southern Tourism Route’ which includes its bestselling ‘Great Ocean Road’. “Self-drives have become popular in India now specially in Victoria and our travel partners have said that they have seen more Indians driving in state. Jose was very receptive and he noted the suggestions we gave,” he said. This meeting, that saw the presence of other key travel associations as well, also saw the attendance of Bollywood film producers, who are keen to explore Kerala as a film shooting location.
The MTOA team also wrote a letter to Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, its Tourism Minister as well as the Deputy Director of Himachal Pradesh Tourism Board to bring to focus the issue of the new online system for booking a taxi to travel to the snow point Victoria because of this Great Ocean Road. We now intend to promote it in a different light by introducing a gourmet trail along the route so they can go for cheese tasting, visit a winery, visit a farm for a barbeque lunch, or even a One Hat restaurant,” she adds.
Tourism Victoria will guide the tour operators in putting this itinerary together. She also added that agents now ask for off-the-beaten track products for their clients as they want it to be more experiential. The NTO has also asked for a bigger budget this financial year. in Manali. “The Himachal Pradesh Tourism Board and the Himachal Road Transport Corporation has implemented a new online system, according to which the number of vehicles that can go up to the snow point has been limited and restricted. This is specially hampering group tours. We have also raised this issue with Minister of State for Environment, Forests & Climate Change Prakash Javdekar, seeking their intervention and ensuring a smooth movement of group tours at one of India’s most popular holiday destinations,” Patil adds.