EGY101 Case Study: Margaret River Gourmet Escape Tourism Impact

This case study examines the Margaret River Gourmet Escape, a significant food and wine event in South West Australia, analyzing its growth and impact on gastronomic tourism since its inception in 2012. The report details the event's evolution from 2013 to 2017, highlighting the involvement of local and international chefs, the diverse range of culinary offerings, and its recognition as a top global festival. It further investigates the domestic and international strategies employed to promote Margaret River as a gastronomic destination, including social media campaigns, grassroots initiatives, and partnerships with local producers and international markets. The study also addresses the economic, environmental, social, and political issues that could affect the event's future, such as government regulations, currency fluctuations, infrastructure development, and social inclusivity. Finally, it suggests activities to support the development of astronomic tourism, such as showcasing upcoming chefs, incorporating local products, and improving ticket accessibility. Desklib offers a platform for students to access similar case studies and solved assignments.

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Hotel and hospitality management
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The Margaret River Gourmet Escape Events
Introduction
Many people enjoy fun and drinks after the long period of work. However, it sometimes
challenging to get all the necessary fun in one place. The Margaret River Gourmet Escape is a
remarkable event that provides the opportunity to both local and international people to celebrate
food and drinks in reference to Connell et al (2016). This event takes place in November each
year in South West Australia. Every festive program goes up to four days with the audience
enjoying food and drinks. The program was launched in 2012, however, since it was launched, it
has provided the cool atmosphere and remarkable landscape for people to share over seventy
thousand different types of foods.
Overview of the program since 2013.
In every year, the program attracts different local and international chefs and
personalities. In this part of the assignment, it is going to elaborate the growth and development
of the program since 2013.
The 2013 event
According to Gannaway (2017) in this year, this festive event took place between 22nd
November and 24th November. In every year the event has different chefs, in this year 2013, the
Siemens Home Appliances took the center stage of the event. According to the statistics, twenty-
five both local and international food including the wine celebrities were present at the event.
These foods and celebrities comprise of the world well stage groups. The event was so inspiring

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and full of funny things, which made the Margaret River Gourmet Escape to gunner top ten
positions as one of the remarkable places in the world. In addition to that, the program comprised
of very talented people and this made it be named in the world magazines as one of the vital
festival events going on in the world in reference to Gibson (2014). Actually, the world
magazine rated the event in the top sixteen list of essential event in the world. Besides that, the
presented chefs prepared best lunches, delicious dinners as the soft music was going around the
event.
2014 event
In this year, the remarkable festive event was held between 21st November to 23rd November. In
this year, there were several improvements in the event including new places of staging such as
the beach, forest, and vineyard. Besides that, there were many new faces, which comprised of
Ashley Palma, Paul West, Ben Milgate, and Massimo Bottura among other new faces according
to Higgins-Desbiolles (2017). The chefs who took the center stage of this event included Heston
Blumenthal. This experienced chef prepared a fat duck from outside the United Kingdom. For
the best achievement, Heston was accompanied with other experienced chefs such as Clare
Smith, Jonny Lake among others. There was a beautiful forest setting prepared in the event.
Many could enjoy solely cooked meet in these cool places. Having such joyous event, it was
ranked as the top fifty events and the special award was set aside for it.
2015 event
Littman, (2016) says that, this event took place starting on 19th Thursday, November with
several chefs such as Rick Stein, Marco Piere, and Matt Stone among other experienced chefs.

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Several foods were displayed including the coffee drinks. The aroma of the delicious food
covered all over the beautiful scenery of South West Australia.
Event of 2016
It took place between 18th to 20th November with several outstanding foods and drinks. The
chefs who were present included Peter Gilmour, James Halliday and Rick Stein among others.
The venue of the event was Leeuwin Estate and the environment was filled with delicious wine
and food from the experts in reference to Mak et al (2017).
2017 event
This remarkable event took center stage between 16th to 19th November. The known chefs from
Canada, Roger Mooking, proved his skills of preparing the best delicious meals ever. Many
people had the opportunity to interact with the chefs while they were sharing the knowledge on
food preparation. On the other hand, people enjoyed wine and drinks from the world, talented
chefs.
Question 2
This event uses various planning strategies to promote Margaret River as gastronomic
tourism in terms of local food and wine industry. These strategies are grouped into domestic and
international strategies.
Domestic strategies.
Margaret River is famous for producing excellent food and drinks. There are many strategies in
place to promote the drink industry locally. There is the wide range of customers in the social
media. From that finding, the digital team has created a social media platform known as the

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restaurantaustralia.com to promote the products. This website allows the local people to view the
available drinks in Margret River. Secondly, there is wine and food campaign strategy in the
grassroots. The local people are taught on the available wines and drinks to increase the number
of visitors in the event. Consequently, there is cooperative strategy established in the forest
region. The co-operative involves the local farmers and producers in the region. In this union,
there is production and marketing of the farm produce sufficient to the locals. Lastly, there are
locally organized events that aim at promoting the wine industry to the locals. The events are
continuously updated on the website to enable the local community to prepare and cheer the
drinks.
Internationally
On the part of international marketing, the strategy focuses on the countries in South East Asia
such as Indonesia. The accessibility to these countries is very easy due to the international
airport. There is trade partnership with the wholesalers and the airlines on how to go and educate
the consumers in other countries. The campaign aims at creating awareness on the available
drinks. Besides that, the customers coming to these events are given free travel packages in the
airport. Other digital campaigns cover the international countries. The campaigns are aired
through social media to inspire the tourist to join the event. On the last part, there is direct
marketing of the wine and food in this event to the international countries. The strategy allows
more people to get to know the wine and food industry in the event.
Question 3
Nieves & Segarra-Ciprés (2015) says that, there are some issues, which have impact on the
future of this event; these include economic, environmental, social and political issues. On

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matters of politics, there have been some government announcements and legislation that will
affect the event. For instance, the government had announced that the event venue would be
different beginning 2019 in reference to Mitchell et al (2015). The event will be in two places,
the Margaret River and the Swan Valley. The announcement may cause some future confusions
leading to low turnouts. Secondly, there are several environmental legislation enacted by the
government. Anybody coming to the event in future must respect the laws. The management of
this event must increase there budget to ensure that everything that may be polluting the
environment is put under control. On the side of economic issue, the main factor that have
impact on the future of this event is the fall in the value of the Australian dollars. When the value
of the dollar falls in means that the management of the event may not collect much from the
tourist. In addition to that, other economic issues is the lack of the proper earning from the local
people. As stated earlier, this event is not only organized for the international tourists but also the
local people. It is therefore essential for the people to have a good source of earning to make
them come to this remarkable event according to van der Rest (2015). The awards that are given
in the event should not only go for the tourists outside but also to the locals. If change in earning
rate happens, people will not manage to come to the event. Consequently, on the environment
matter, the infrastructure in the place affect how people attend the event. When the area
improves in terms of infrastructure many local and international, visitors should be expected to
come. However, if the security and housing in the area is of low quality it might lead to the drop
in the attendance. The other thing is the weather change. People differs on how they adapt to
weather, this is also environment factor that may affect the event. Apparently, on the part of
social matter, the factors that may affect the event may be racism, tribalism among other factors.

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When everybody is welcomed in the event without priority, more visitors will come, however, if
there is favoritism it may lead to drop in the number according to Roglić (2017).
Question 4
Walsh (2015) sys that, when the management of this program wants to support the
development of astronomic tourism in Margaret River, some activities should be incorporated
during the event. For instance, when organizing the event, there should be time for the upcoming
chefs. From the past years, the event is always hosting the experienced chefs but forgetting the
upcoming teams. There should be a program to identify the upcoming chefs in the local area plus
all the international team. If the program is initiated, many people will feel inspired to come to
this event. On the sides of food, the team should incorporate the locally made beers and provide
to the international group according to Xiang et al (2015). In addition to that, the internationally
made food should also be brought into the program. However, the accessibility of the entry
tickets should be made possible. There should be a local shop for selling the tickets; these will
increase awareness of the event.
Conclusion
The Margaret River Gourmet Escape event is an annual event that gives experienced
chefs opportunity to prove their skills. According to the statistics, this remarkable event has
helped to promote the Australian foods and drinks. However, some important issues should be
included in the event to make it more interesting. From the above illustration, the loopholes are
stated and therefore the management team should look at them while organizing next event.

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Reference
Connell, J., Dufty-Jones, R., & Connell, J. (2016). Soft country? Rural and regional Australia in
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Gannaway, K. (2017). Halliday Awards recognise pioneering Yarra Valley winery. Australian
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Gibson, C. (2014). Rural place marketing, tourism and creativity: entering the post-productivist
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210.
Higgins-Desbiolles, F. (2017). Food tourism as a pathway to decolonisation and alternative
futures.
Littman, M. (2016). Moon Memphis. Moon Travel.
Mak, A. H., Lumbers, M., Eves, A., & Chang, R. C. (2017). The effects of food-related
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Mitchell, J. C., Mendelson III, J. R., & Stewart, M. M. (2015). George Bernard
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Roglić, J. (2017). USPOREDBA PROMIDŽBE GASTRONOMSKE PONUDE STRANICE TZ
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