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  • Tourism Australia toasts new ‘Best Of Wine’ tourism initiative

    Tourism Australia has teamed up with one of the vital country’s top wineries in an enormous new national partnership, which aims to boost the profile of Australia as probably the most 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 at 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 possibility of the combined wine and tourism industries, worth A$140 billion annually to the country’s economy.

    “Tourism Australia is basically pleased to be inquisitive about this new exciting initiative, which permits us to support the tourism and wine industries by packaging up and promoting the most convenient of the precise of Australia’s wineries, cellar doors and wine experiences,” Mr McEvoy said.

    “These wineries usually are not simply venues to taste and buy wine. Most of them offer a whole tourism experience – restaurants, accommodation, tours, in addition to exciting backstage winery experiences. They enable visitors to have interaction with the product, the winemaker and luxuriate in first-hand, the wealthy diversity that our many wine regions need to offer,” he said.

    Brooke Copping, Marketing Manager of Moorilla Estate in Tasmania, said the hot initiative offered Moorilla Winery the chance to arrive a world audience – something they didn’t have the resources to do on their lonesome.”

    “We are captivated with promoting Australia as a food and wine destination, and believe it’s an important portion of building the reputation of Australian tourism at home and abroad. We now have incredible quality in our regions and this can be a terrific opportunity to construct Australia’s brand within the food and wine world,” said Greg Stirling, Head of brand name Sites and Visitations Jacobs Creek Visitor Centre.

    Wine is the most recent 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 better of Australia initiatives because they so ably demonstrate why there’s nothing like Australia – consequently by showcasing our wonderful wine experiences and the good tourism experiences that lie beyond them,” Mr McEvoy said.

    The partnership would be extended in subsequent phases to incorporate 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 3 year marketing agreement between Tourism Australia and Wine Australia in December last year, geared toward jointly promoting wine and tourism in key international markets akin to China, america, UK, and Canada in addition to Australia.

    The new wine initiative is backed by international research finished 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.

  • News: Fiona Jeffery OBE to depart World Travel Market

    Chairman Fiona Jeffery OBE is to go away World Travel Market after 26 years to pursue other interests inside the global travel and tourism industry.

    She will continue her role as Chairman of Only a Drop, the international water charity she founded in 1998. Reed has supported since this charity since its inception and could continue to take action. Jeffery, who received the OBE for services to tourism last year, is to tackle fresh challenges after leading World Travel Market to its commanding position because the leading global event for the travel industry.

    In 1997, as Exhibition Director, Jeffery launched World Travel Market’s “Environmental Awareness Day” which, with the support of the WTM team, she has developed into “WTM World Responsible Tourism Day” since 2005 and it’s now the most important event of its kind worldwide.

    As founding father of a global water aid charity she has also helped greater than 1,000,000 people in 30 countries to access clean, safe water. another key milestone achieved by Jeffery and the WTM team have been the successful landmark WTM Ministers’ Programme in association with the UNWTO. Her work with Only a Drop has persuaded the industry, including many organisations, destinations, tourist boards and operators to regularly raise funds.

    “I am sad to move in any case this time but pleased with the achievements which have been realised on my own and the area Travel Market team”, said Jeffery. “I leave behind a business that has grown to become a powerful global brand.” 

    Reed Exhibitions wish to thank Fiona for her significant contribution to the business over a few years and need her every success sooner or later.

    WTM will remain run by the prevailing and experienced management team led by senior Exhibition Director Simon Press.

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  • Qantas-Emirates tie as much as benefit regional Australia

    Regional Australia is decided to learn from increased international visitors because the Qantas-Emirates network delivers on its promise to spice up inbound tourism.

    Outside the town gateways, regional centres akin to Cairns, Coffs Harbour and Hobart are showing positive initial signs as new destinations at the Emirates network.

    Since selling at the joint network began in January, Emirates customers from the uk, Europe, North Africa, South East Asia and the center East have purchased a typical of 3 times more fares to leading regional centres including Hobart, Coffs Harbour and Cairns than under the former partnership.

    Qantas Executive Manager of International Sales Stephen Thompson said inbound tourism would get advantages from Emirates selling seamless itineraries to a few of Australia’s most efficient regional centres.

    “As as a result of the our partnership with Emirates, our regional centres are being promoted to a much bigger audience than ever before,” Mr Thompson said.

    “We have already seen strong bookings for brand spanking new codeshare destinations across Australia including Townsville, Darwin, Launceston, Alice Springs, Devonport, Rockhampton, Broome and the Gold Coast.

    “As well as making travel within Australia easier for visitors, with one fare and one ticket, the Qantas-Emirates partnership also provides tourism operators with new opportunities to capitalise at the international tourists visiting the rustic.

    “Tourism is a giant economic driver for Australia, creating jobs and promoting investment and development.”

    Emirates – that is the world’s largest international airline – is offering a complete of 32 destinations at the Qantas Domestic network to its global customer base.

    Mr Thompson said Qantas had seen strong inbound sales from the United Arab Emirates, Uk, Singapore, Thailand and Italy especially but said that Australian travellers also stood to profit.

    “The Qantas-Emirates partnership promises world class travel experiences with more one-stop access to and from Europe, shorter travel times, cheaper airfares and exclusive frequent flyer benefits,” he said.

    Prior to its partnership with Emirates, the Qantas network offered five one-stop codeshare destinations into Europe and the united kingdom. It now offers access to greater than 30 destinations in Europe at the combined network.

    Qantas customers may also now shave a mean of two hours and quarter-hour in their journey time to the tip 10 destinations in Europe (from Sydney and Melbourne), compared with the previous network.

  • Fraser Suites Glasgow opens following redevelopment

    Situated within the heart of Glasgow and just steps from Merchant City, award winning Fraser Suites Glasgow has opened its doors to a seven figure refurbishment programme that has transformed the acclaimed serviced apartments right into a luxurious four star home from home experience. Since work commenced last year all 98 apartments and public areas inside the historic building have undergone a makeover to create luxurious and stylishly appointed suites and apartments offering contemporary surroundings with state-of-the-art appliances.

  • News: Easter signals changes for Glasgow rail network

    Network Rail engineers will complete a £35m, two-year-long project to upgrade signalling systems at the south-side of Glasgow over the Easter weekend.

    Part of an ongoing programme of enhancement and renewal around the network, the scheme has replaced aging signalling equipment at the East Kilbride, Barrhead, Netwton, Neilston and Cathcart Circle lines and enhanced track and capacity at key locations.

    Over the Easter weekend control of the hot signalling systems could be transferred to the state-of-the-art West of Scotland Signalling Centre in north Glasgow.

    This transfer can’t be made with out a short-term closure of the East Kilbride, Barrhead, Netwton, Neilston and Cathcart Circle lines between Saturday, March 30, and Monday, April 1.

    During the engineering works right here service alterations shall be in place:

    Cathcart Circle / Neilston / Newton

    A replacement bus service could be in operation. Resulting from road restrictions, there’ll be no replacement bus service at Maxwell Park – passengers travelling to / from Maxwell Park, should use bus services at Pollokshields West and Crossmyloof stations.

    East Kilbride

    A replacement bus service will operate in both directions.

    Barrhead / Kilmarnock

    Services will start / terminate at Barrhead and replacement buses will operate between Glasgow and Barrhead, calling in any respect stations.

    A Network Rail spokesman said: “These engineering works are a part of a first-rate investment within the long-term way forward for Scotland’s railway.

    “The work we’re undertaking is incredibly complex and can’t be delivered without some impact on train services, but we’re working closely with train operators to restrict disruption and to deliver these enhancements as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

    A ScotRail spokeswoman added: “We’re arranging buses to maintain inconvenience to a minimum. However, we’re advising customers to permit time beyond regulation for his or her journeys, especially in the event that they have bus and train connections. They need to even be aware that the beginning times of buses may differ from scheduled train times.”

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