Analysis of Role of Events in Tourism Development in Townsville

This report examines the role of events, particularly a food and wine festival, in the tourism development of Townsville, Australia. It begins with an introduction to tourism destination management and its significance, followed by an analysis of how events contribute to Townsville's tourism goals. The report includes a SWOT analysis of the destination event, evaluating its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Data summaries are provided to support the analysis, focusing on visitor demographics and expectations. The report highlights the importance of strategic planning, marketing, and community engagement for maximizing tourism benefits and economic development in Townsville. The conclusion emphasizes the potential for growth and the need for addressing identified weaknesses to enhance the region's appeal to tourists.

Running head: TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT 1
Analysis of role of events in Tourism Development in Townsville

TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT 2
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Role of events in Tourism Development in Townsville..................................................................3
SWOT Analysis of the destination event.........................................................................................4
Strengths......................................................................................................................................5
Weaknesses..................................................................................................................................5
Opportunities...............................................................................................................................5
Threats.........................................................................................................................................6
Data summary..................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT 3
Introduction
As opined by Jin, Hu & Kavan (2016), tourism destination management has significant
importance in tourism and contributes to the economic development of countries. There are
several tourism destinations in the world but not all of them are able to derive benefits of the
tourism industry development. According to Sangchumnong (2018), destination management is a
collaborative efforts of all the elements that makes a destination attractive to the tourists. The
elements include the attractions, basic amenities, services, access, and marketing. As identified
by the results in Statista (2019), tourism is one of the largest industries in the world which has
seen immense opportunity for innovation and growth of a country. The following report will
discuss on role of events in tourism destination development that would help Townsville to host
food and wine festival and derive significance benefits. The primary objective of doing this is
identifying strategies and significant contribution for the development of Townsville. As
identified by Idcommunity (2019), Townsville has served many tourists in the previous years as
a desirable destination. Therefore, the use of right segmentation tools, Townsville will be able to
attract the desired audience thereby creating a positive image in the minds of tourists and
contribute to the economic development of Townsville.
Role of events in Tourism Development in Townsville
Based on the reports of Tourism Australia (2019), it has been identified that Australia
aims to make the country a desirable tourist destination by increasing the inflow of tourists and
increase visitor expenditure two significant amount by the year 2020. If the country focuses on
promoting the growth of its tourism sector, it should utilize conducting various festivals that
attracts maximum tourists. As per Tourism Tropical North Queensland (2018), the North
Queensland region has great opportunities to become a market leader in tourism sector by
making strong connections with the world capitalizing on marketing strategies. The Townsville
North Queensland has created civil tourism strategies for improving the destination management
of Townsville. As the vision stated by City of Townsville (2019), by the year 2020, Townsville
will be recognized as an entertaining and engaging visitor experience for the tourists throughout
the year. According to their experiences spectrum, a greater economic value can be achieved by
differentiating on the entertainment and experiences factors offered to the tourists. The initial
goals would include an increased expenditure on tourism activities, awareness of the experiences

TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT 4
tourist can get, strategies for positioning in terms of learning experiences, highlighting the
strengths of destination and the inflow of revenue from tourists coming to Townsville. The
existing strategies of Townsville North Queensland includes providing 'Hero experiences'
(Tourism & Events Queensland, 2019). The hero experiences comprise of highlighting the
special places of nature, the heritage sites of Townsville, The Great Barrier Reef Centre of
Excellence and the different sports and cultural festivals celebrated throughout the year (Tourism
& Events Queensland, 2019). This provides real competitive advantage that makes Townsville a
unique and memorable experience for many tourists.
According to Eco-tourism Australia (2019), the region has also focused on the growth of
Eco-tourism within Townsville. By the end of September 2018, the total expenditure on tourism
activities accounted to $17.6 billion with a total of 22.8 million visitors raising at 3.1% visitation
growth. Furthermore, Townsville aims to increase its market share in sports tourism by 4%,
increase the share of educating visitors by 1% and 3% growth in the events conducted in
Townsville by the year 2020. Apart from this, the current strategies included the Melbourne
campaign generating approximately $6 million over the six week campaign. Tourism marketing
with the help of digital marketing techniques supported the local tourism business and promoted
a better picture of Queensland's scenic beauty. In the year 2018, Townsville North Queensland
has an estimation of $9 million in economic impact for the future years. The visitor services and
volunteering is one of the most important strategies to promote tourist attractions and
experiences with a friendly approach provided by the locals to educate the visitors about the
region. Community engagement, Townsville Enterprise events and various other strategies
contribute to the economic development of Townsville and its tourism sector.
SWOT Analysis of the destination event
As per Campón-Cerro, Hernández-Mogollón & Folgado-Fernández (2018), a successful
tourism industry is based upon the strategies utilized to improve the economic development of
any country. The tourism development of the Townsville region has been great in the recent
years due to its existing event strategies and marketing techniques to gain the attention of tourists
from all over the world. In order to analyze the success of the tourism industry and events
conducted in Townsville region, a SWOT analysis can be utilized. This will provide an in-depth
analysis on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that can impact the community

TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT 5
and contribute to develop the destination region. The strengths will determine how Townsville
will facilitate the upcoming events in the region. The weaknesses will improving the gaps in the
current strategies. However, the opportunities will be able to facilitate Townsville different ways
of hosting more events to improve the image of the region and generator revenues. But the
threats should also be analyzed to forecast any activity that maybe a barrier for economic
development.
Strengths
The food and wine festival will be a new event since Townsville has the ability to support
such events. Townsville has been a great tourist destination for tourists from all over the world.
Due to its location and scenic beauty of the region with the reef and magnetic island makes
Townsville a desirable tourist location. In order to host the events, Townsville provides several
venues such as the Strand Park, The Museum of Tropical Queensland, and River Way (Australia,
2019). Townsville also has number of historical places that provides a different experience to the
visitors. The local history will be able to provide a plethora of information to conduct destination
activities. The visitors will be able to gain educational opportunities Educational Tourism
Services on various locations of Townsville. The strength lies in the availability of cultural
diversity in terms of people, food and economy.
Weaknesses
Although there are multiple strengths, there are few weakness that the region faces. The
first weakness would be lack of infrastructure and accommodation facilities if the events are
conducted on a larger scale. Accommodating many people requires a larger space which may
restrict the region to host any such event. Along with that, there are funding issues that would
help to improve the awareness of the Townsville region. This will eventually have a negative
impact on the visitors but might benefit the competitors. The region does not have enhanced
international air access which may put the visitors in dilemma whether to visit or not. The
awareness level among visitors is low in the current situation with regards to range of services
Townsville North Queensland provides. When the visitors are not aware of the services provided
in a region, the reason can be lack of marketing efforts, and promotion of the beauty of the
region.

TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT 6
Opportunities
Although the awareness among the visitors about the Townsville region is comparatively
low but the opportunity lies in putting efforts in marketing, brand development, hosting
educational events, promoting the services on social media, and gaining testimonials and
experiences of visitors. This will not only maximize tourist opportunities but also improve the
image of Townsville and contribute to the economic development. The promotion of the
desirable event hosting locations will give an opportunity for community engagement by
participation of various restaurants, food chains, sporting event organizers, and Edu-tourism
organizers. The opportunity lies in attracting tourists from every corner of the world by
providing enhanced services and tourism experience. This will also help the supporting
businesses to flourish alongside the tourism sector in Townsville.
Threats
When there lies various opportunities for the businesses to flourish, there also lies certain
threats that needs to be considered. The existence of other destinations in North Queensland can
be a threat for Townsville. This is because these particular regions have various strategies to
promote a number of events starting from food festivals, visitor educational festivals, nature and
outbound festivals, spirit and soul festivals, sports festivals, music festivals, cultural festivals and
adventure activities. Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Gold Coast are few of the leading regions
that host food and wine festivals with utmost joy and celebrations. There can be many restaurants
reluctant to participate in the event. Any bad experience to a visitor can lead to the loss of many
other visitors coming to the region. Although there are beautiful locations within the Townsville
region for hosting various events, not be enough to accommodate a larger crowd. This is indeed a
threat as the visitors might be reluctant to host any such event which requires to serve a larger
crowd.
Data summary
The data is primarily focussed on the event pertaining to food, wine and beer festival at
Townsville, Australia as far as the concept of tourism destination development is concerned. It is
an event which attracts foodies to a large extent thereby promoting tourism in Townsville,
Australia to a great level. The wine and beer festival at Townsville, Australia attracts people
from various countries thereby making it a multinational affair subsequently elevating

TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT 7
Townsville, Australia at the global level with regard to tourism destination development. On the
basis of the reports and observations made accordingly, it is projected that by the year 2020,
Townsville would be a pioneer in the aspects pertaining to tourism development as far as the
Australian State of Queensland is concerned (Creation, 2015). On an average, the female
visitors have outnumbered the male visitors as inferred from the report that there were 64% of
females in comparison to 36% of males (Hidden Valley Cabins, 2019).
Figure 1: No. of visitors during events
Males Females
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
36%
64%
No. of Visitors
No. of Visitors
(Source: Author’s creation )
The target market focuses mainly on foodies all over the world who are enthusiastic
about tasting various kinds of cuisines along with light alcoholic beverages in the form of
various kinds of wines and beverages. The surveys pertaining to the visitors have implied that in
the future, Townsville is highly likely to host such kinds of events thereby attracting more and
more people as far as tourism development is concerned taking account of the incredibility of the
event held in 2017 (Penney & Teague, 2016). Around 28.2 percent of the visitors felt that they
had the opportunity to gain an insight pertaining to the information regarding the historical
perspective of Australia as a nation prior to the arrival to the event. However, 23% of the visitors
felt that their expectations pertaining to the gaining of the proper and appropriate knowledge of
the history of Australia were met as desired (Tsai & Wang, 2017).

TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT 8
Prior to the arrival to the event, 34.3 percent of the visitors felt that they would have been
offered opportunities pertaining to relaxation. However, 30.4 percent of the visitors felt that the
expectations pertaining to relaxation were met accordingly. Around 29.5 percent of the visitors
before arriving to the event expected that they would be provided with a huge scope and
opportunity with regard to the discovering of something new thereby having learning experience
in the desired manner. However, 24.9 percent of the visitors felt that the expectations pertaining
to learning experience in the desired manner were met in an effective and efficient manner
(Croce & Perri, 2017).
Figure 2: Prior to the approval of event
Very Satisfied Satisfied Not Satisfied
22.00%
23.00%
24.00%
25.00%
26.00%
27.00%
28.00%
29.00%
30.00% 29.40%
24.60%
29.50%
Prior to the approval of event
Prior to the approval of event
(Source: Author’s creation)
Around 31.1 percent of the visitors prior to the arrival to the event felt that they would
have enough opportunities pertaining to tourism and exploration as far as sightseeing in the
desired manner is concerned. However, 26.2 percent of the visitors felt that the expectations
pertaining to such kinds of adventurous and travelling activities pertaining to tourism and
exploration with regard to sightseeing were met in the desired manner. Around 28.7 percent of
the visitors prior to the arrival to the event felt that they would have enough opportunities with
regard to have experiences based on nature. However, 24.3 percent of the visitors stated that their

TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT 9
experiences pertaining to the basis of nature were met in a proper and appropriate manner.
Around 29.8 percent of the visitors prior to the arrival to the event felt that they would have
enough opportunities with regard to the experiencing food and wine in a proper and appropriate
manner. However, a quarter of the visitors felt that their expectations with regard to the
experiences pertaining to food and wine were met in the desired manner. 29.4% of the visitors
prior to the arrival to the event felt that they would have enough opportunities with regard to
experience of art and culture as far as the gaining of the knowledge pertaining to customs and
traditions are concerned. Such expectations were met for 24.6 percent of the visitors (Osmond,
Chen & Pearce, 2015). Around 29.5 % the visitors prior to the arrival to the event felt that they
would have enough opportunities with regard to shopping as far as their satisfaction in a proper
and appropriate manner is concerned. However, such expectations pertaining to shopping in the
satisfied manner were accordingly met for 24.4 percent of the visitors. Around 27.3 the visitors
prior to the arrival to the event felt that they would have enough opportunities with regard to
sports and related activities. However, such expectations pertaining to sports and related
activities were met for 20.8 percent of the visitors (Lai, Khoo-Lattimore & Wang, 2018. Around
32.6 percent of the visitors felt that prior to the arrival to the event they would have enough
opportunities pertaining to the indulgence activities with regard to beach and water sports and
other kinds of related activities. However, such kinds of expectations with regard to the
opportunities pertaining to the indulgence activities in relation to beach and water sports and
other kinds of related activities were met in the desired manner for 27.3 percent of the visitors
(Mason & Paggiaro, 2012).
Figure 3: Water and sports activities

TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT 10
Had enough
opportunities Satisfied Unsure about
opportunities Met in the desired
manner
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
Water and sports activities
Water and sports activities
(Source: Author’s creation)
Around 27.5 percent of the visitors had expectations pertaining to nightlife and related
kinds of entrainment as far as fun-filled activities are concerned. However, such kinds of
expectations with regard to the aspects pertaining to nightlife and related kinds of entrainment
with regard to having fun-filled experiences were met by 21.4 percent of the visitors. Around
26.6 percent of the visitors had expectations pertaining to luxury and being indulged in to related
kinds of activities. However, 20.3 percent of the visitors felt that their expectations to luxury and
being indulged in related kinds of activities have been met accordingly (Lee, Sung, Suh & Zhao,
2017). Around 23.6 percent of the visitors have expressed that they are totally and completely
satisfied with regard to the visit to the event.
Figure 4: Luxury experiences

TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT 11
Had expections Met expectations in desired
manner Completely Satisfied
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
Luxury expectations
Luxury expectations
(Source: Author’s creation)
On the other hand, a miniscule 2.4 percent of the visitors felt that they are not satisfied at
all with the visit pertaining to the event. Around 21.4 percent of the visitors felt that they are
highly likely to return to the event in the future (Alonso, Bressan, O'Shea, & Krajsic, 2015). On
the other hand, a miniscule 2.4 percent of the visitors felt that they are not at all contemplating to
return to the event. Around 23.5 percent of the visitors have expressed that they would
recommend the event to others as far as visiting is concerned. On the other hand, a miniscule 2.4
percent of the visitors felt that they would not at all suggest the event to be attended by others.
Around 8.3 percent of the visitors attending the event have stated that roads are extremely
important with regard to such kinds of events. In this regard, around 5.5 percent of the visitors
attending the event have expressed that they are completely satisfied with the features pertaining
to roads as far as the incredibility of the event is concerned (Hall, 2013).
Conclusion
As observed form the aforesaid discourse, it can be concluded by stating that the event in
Townsville, Australia pertaining to food, wine and beer festival has played an extremely
important role with regard to the development of tourism and the advancement of the concept
pertaining to destination management at a huge level. The aforesaid discourse has also presented

TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT 12
the visitor survey pertaining to the inferences related to the satisfaction of the visitors with regard
to the event in various aspects. As a result, it is imperative that the event has played an extremely
important role with regard to the development of tourism in the Australian state of Queensland
along with the city of Townsville playing the key role with regard to the driving of tourism in the
Australian state of Queensland. The analysis pertaining to the strengths and weaknesses along
with the opportunities and threats of the event have also been performed accordingly so as to
imply the incredibility of the event in a proper and appropriate manner. The event has also
played an extremely vital role in the attracting of tourists and visitors all over the world thereby
catering to their needs and demands in an effective and efficient manner.

TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT 13
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TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT 14
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