Wine and Food Tourism in the Australian Capital Territory: Exploring the Links Available to Purchase

The last few years has seen an unprecedented interest in the marketing and development of wine and culinary tourism, both overseas and in Australia (Macionis, 1998). Indeed, wine and food have become integral components of the tourism product and experience (Hall, et.al., forthcoming). For example, Tourism NSW's Food and Wine in Tourism Plan (Tourism NSW, 1996:2) states that it is the “beginning of [and] effort to bring food and wine into the tourism mainstream,” while regional areas such as NSW's Central West have launched the Cowra‐Orange‐Mudgee Experience (COME), which focuses on food and wine as the “hook to lure more visitors” (Downey, 1998:6). Despite the increasing recognition of the role of wine and food in attracting visitors and the often quoted synergy and complementary nature of the wine and tourism sectors (King, 1998; Connel and Gibson, forthcoming) there has been little specific focus on wine, food and tourism linkages. In addition, wine tourism is often viewed only from the perspective of cellar door visitation and tasting (King, 1998), with little consideration placed on conceptualising wine tourism away from the winery. For example, many tourists' first experience with local or regional wines is often far removed from the cellar door, occurring at their hotel or at a restaurant. As such there are considerable opportunities in more explicitly linking and marketing the wine and food products in a tourism context. This paper reports on an exploratory examination and analysis of the nature and extent of linkages and relationships between the wine, food and tourism sectors in the Canberra Region. Based on extensive interviews with Canberra restaurateurs, it examines the potential of wine and food tourism in a developing wine region, highlights practices and perceptions that restrict the development of productive linkages between the wine and food sectors, and explores opportunities for strategic marketing activities that will benefit both industries at both a micro (i.e. individual enterprise) and a macro (destinational product development and marketing) level.