Tourism Australia Toasts New 'Best Of Wine' Tourism Initiative

Tourism Australia has teamed up with some of the country’s top wineries in a major new national partnership, which aims to raise the profile of Australia as one of the world's leading wine tourism destinations.

'Ultimate Winery Experiences of Australia'is a consortium of high-end, award winning wineries offering unique wine experiences including barrel, private and structured tastings, food-wine matching, wine education and gastronomy in spectacular locations within renowned wine regions.

The group includes Jacobs Creek and Seppeltsfield from the Barossa Valley; Leeuwin Estate and Xanadu from Margaret River; De Bortoli, TarraWarra and Yering Station from the Yarra Valley; Wyndham Estate from the Hunter Valley; Montalto on the Mornington Peninsula; Moorilla Estate and Josef Chromy from Tasmania.

Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy said the collaboration also included support from State tourism offices and aimed to tap into the potential of the combined wine and tourism industries, worth A$140 billion annually to the country’s economy.

“Tourism Australia is really pleased to be involved in this new exciting initiative, which allows us to support the tourism and wine industries by packaging up and promoting the best of the best of Australia’s wineries, cellar doors and wine experiences,” Mr McEvoy said.

“These wineries are not simply venues to taste and purchase wine. Most of them offer a complete tourism experience - restaurants, accommodation, tours, as well as exciting behind the scenes winery experiences. They allow visitors to interact with the product, the winemaker and enjoy first-hand, the rich diversity that our many wine regions have to offer,” he said.

Marketing Manager of Moorilla Estate in Tasmania, Brooke Copping said the new initiative offered Moorilla Winery the opportunity to reach an international audience - something they didn't have the resources to do on their own.

“We are passionate about promoting Australia as a food and wine destination, and believe it’s an essential part of building the reputation of Australian tourism at home and abroad. We have incredible quality in our regions and this is a terrific opportunity to build Australia’s brand in the food and wine world,” said Greg Stirling, Head of Brand Sites and Visitations Jacobs Creek Visitor Centre.

Wine is the latest tourism experience to be included under Tourism Australia’s ‘Best of Australia’ banner – joining Great Golf Courses of Australia and Great Walks of Australia launched last year.

“Tourism Australia is backing this and other best of Australia initiatives because they so ably demonstrate why there's nothing like Australia - in this case by showcasing our wonderful wine experiences and the great tourism experiences that lie beyond them,” Mr McEvoy said.

The partnership will be extended in subsequent phases to include other outstanding vineyards offering wine experiences beyond the cellar door in Australia, many within iconic settings attractive to both domestic and international tourism visitors.

The launch of 'Ultimate Winery Experiences of Australia' follows the signing of a three year marketing agreement between Tourism Australia and Wine Australia in December last year, aimed at jointly promoting wine and tourism in key international markets such as China, the USA, UK, and Canada as well as Australia.

The new wine initiative is backed by international research carried out by BDA Marketing last year on behalf of Tourism Australia which showed that, despite perceptions, Australia’s food and wine is ranked very highly amongst actual visitors to Australia.