Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in Australia Report

Introduction

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is an annual event organized by the Melbourne Food and Wine Organization. The event is held in March of every year since its inception in 1993. The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is held throughout Melbourne showcasing the urban and regional life of the city and its various food and wine offerings to reinforce the position of the city of Melbourne as the culinary city of the nation. The duration of the festival is usually for 15-20 days variable on a year to year basis. Over 300,000 visitors attend the year annually (200 events over 17 days: Festival Showcases Melbourne’s iconic food and wine scene 2009).

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival was originally started in 1993 when it encompassed of only 12 events. Now however the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is composed of more than 220 events and rivals other regional events like the Australian Tennis Open.

Context

Role of the Festival

The role of the Melbourne Food and Wine festival is to provide increased awareness about the culinary treasures in Australia as well as increase the attraction of the public to the gastronomical offers that the festival opens up to them. The festival plays a key role in promoting Australia, particularly as a tourist destination as well as promotes the food and wine culture of the region.

Push and Pull Factors

The push factors that are relevant to the festival pertain to the unique culinary experience that is expected by the visitors as well as the recreational enjoyment that they crave from the festival. The pull factors relevant to the festival include the various different food and wine offers that attract the visitors of diverse palates as well as the free sample food tasting offered by the festival.

Role of Food and Drink in Festival Events

The food and drink festivals play an important role increasing tourism in the region as well as increase revenue for regional as well as international food businesses. Aside from this the food and drink festivals are also aimed at increasing the awareness of the visitors about the culinary and gastronomical offers while educating them about the culture, history and heritage behind the food.

Political Agenda

The main political agenda behind the Melbourne Food and Drink Festival is to increase the awareness of Melbourne as a cultural hot spot and epicenter of good food and great wine in Australia. The festival promotes to the political agenda by creating awareness about the region, as well as increasing revenue for the region by increasing internal as well as over season tourism coming into the region.

Historical/ Contemporary Importance of the Festival

Since 1993, the festival has been integrating the history of the region, and its significant landmarks with food and wine offers for visitors. The World Longest Lunch in the Melbourne Food and Drink Festival in 2009 took place at the banks of the Yarra River depicting the heritage of the region and the classic Italian roots of the location/ infrastructure in its food offerings and selection presented in the lunch (200 events over 17 days: Festival Showcases Melbourne’s iconic food and wine scene 2009).

Attendants of the Festival

The attendants of the Melbourne Food and Drink Festival are people from all around the world. The residents of Melbourne as well as tourists that come from all over the world are welcome to experience and be part of the Melbourne Food and Drink Festival. The festival has been attracting many celebrity chefs as well as celebrities in the past.

Planning

Vision and Mission of the Festival

The vision of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is to create awareness in the general public about the gastronomical offers that Melbourne ahs to offer and the role that it plays in the culture and historical heritage of the region. The mission of the non profit organization behind the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is to simply promote the urban Melbourne lifestyle to the general public while also depicting the contribution that food and wine plays in the urban life of the region.

The charter of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is to “promote the quality produce, talent and lifestyle of Melbourne and the State of Victoria and to reinforce Melbourne as the pre-eminent culinary city of Australia” (About Us 2009). The structure of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is such that it is run and managed by a Board of Directors and a dedicated team. The festival marks significant industry partnership between the organization and the food & drink/ hospitality industry. “Melbourne Food and Wine has the strong support and respect of the food, wine and hospitality industry and has worked with and for the industries, showcasing Melbourne as an outstanding food and wine capital” (About Us 2009).

Goals and Objectives

The goals and objectives behind the food and wine festival in Melbourne are derived from the vision and the Mission of the festival. The main objectives of the festival pertain to the following

• Creating awareness of the gastronomic offerings of the region
• Promote the classical roots of the region through their impact on regional food
• Create awareness of diverse types of food in the region
• Create awareness on healthy food
• Showcase urban life in Melbourne
• Conduct presentations and live cooking of food as well as the wine preparation/ packaging process to the visitors.
• Promote tourism in the region
• Acknowledging the contribution of the great chefs and local food business to the food and wine industry through the Melbourne Food and Wine Legends program (What makes a Melbourne Food and Wine Legend 2009).

SWOT Analysis

The strength of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is that it showcases a diverse offering of gastronomic inventions and feasts prepared by world renown chefs that attract visitors to the event. Aside from this the event makes such of local culture and heritage to tastefully depict the urban Melbourne lifestyle and the related food and drink to visitors offering them a unique experience. The weakness of the festival is that it is usually over a period of 15-17 days which makes it difficult for some visitors to have the whole experience of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival as they are unable to stay the length of the festival.

The opportunities that are present to the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival for strategically attaining its vision is to market the event globally and make way for a larger audience for the festival. The Threats that are faced by the festival pertain to the high fuel costs in the aviation industry which makes it difficult for tourists to travel to Australia for the event. Aside from this the impact of the financial and capital market failure in the recent past has affected the expendable income that the consumers can dedicate for such excursions therefore having a negative effect on the number of visitors attending the event.

Human Resources

Stakeholders

The stakeholders of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival include the employees and the Volunteers of the Melbourne Food and Wine Organization, the Management of the Melbourne Food and Wine Organization, The sponsors and the partners of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival event and the customers who visit the festival. Aside from this the stakeholders also include the regional state of Victoria and the government of Australia. The organization also hires volunteers for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival which are also the stakeholders of the event. Other stakeholders of the festival include the local community of Melbourne and the different businesses and chefs that showcase their food and wine offerings to the public through the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Volunteers

As mentioned above the Melbourne Food and Wine Organization employs volunteers for its annual Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. These volunteers include college students; regional business owners as well as the general public who want participate in the event and want to be involved in the festival.

Recruitment and Training

The Melbourne Food and Wine Organization has an established policy for recruitment. The organization hires employees through recommendation, job posting in the newspapers as well as through online recruitment channels. The organization hires its volunteers for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival through traditional channels of recruitment like newspapers, bulletin boards and advertisements placed through agencies as well as through advertisements posted on their website inviting volunteers to sign up.

The management of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is responsible for supervising the volunteers and providing support to the participating businesses and chefs. The training of the volunteers as well as the staff at the Melbourne Food and Wine Organization is conducted through official training programs and work shop sessions. These sessions are usually designed and held in accordance with the training partners of the organization which include Holmesglen, Swinbur NE and William Angliss Institute (Melbourne Food and Wine Festival presented by The Age Sponsors 2009).

Sponsorship

Budgeting

The budgeting for the event is conducted by the Melbourne Food and Wine Organization which is derived form the previous years budgets for the annual Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and the sources of funding available form the sponsors and partners of the event. The contributions of the previous year’s festival are incorporated into the budgeting for the current Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Major Sources of Funding

The main source of funding for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is derived from the sponsorship of the event. For this the organization embarks upon sponsorships that foster mutually beneficial relationship through the festival. The main sponsoring partners of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival include The Age, The Langham Melbourne, and Virgin Blue. The media partners include Sunrise, 774 ABC Melbourne, ABC Local Radio, APN Outdoor, AdShell,. BBC Australian Good Food, Gourmet Traveller, and AvantCard.

The Product Partners for the festival include Hamix, Covent Bakery, Equal, Fissler, Magimix and Mount Zero Olives. The Wine partners for the festival include Sommeliers Australia and T’Gallant Winemakers. Other partners and sponsors include CoffeX, Connex, Crown, Miele, Sanpellegrino, Fed Square and South Gate to name a few (Melbourne Food and Wine Festival presented by The Age Sponsors 2009).

The government of Australia and the state of Victoria are some of the main contributors to the funding for the Melbourne Food and Drink festival. The Minister for Regional and State Development for the state of Victoria mentioned in a media release in 2004 that the “government was a major sponsor of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival as part of its commitment to developing the State’s $8.5 billion tourism industry” (Top Chefs to Join Celebrities in Culinary Cook Off 2004). The Government partners and Sponsors include the Government of Victoria, The City of Melbourne, Tourism Victoria and the government of Australia (Melbourne Food and Wine Festival presented by The Age Sponsors 2009).

Marketing

Target Markets

The target market for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is global in nature. This is because the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival targets the residents of Melbourne as well as those of the entire nation of Australia to experience the life of Melbourne and its culinary delights along with its heritage in a spread of event packed 15-20 days. This encourages local tourism. Aside from this the target market for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival include the international consumers and customers as well who come to Australia as tourist to experience the regional lifestyle and take in the culinary delights of the region. The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival attracts over 300,000 visitors from all over the world every year (200 events over 17 days: Festival Showcases Melbourne’s iconic food and wine scene 2009).

Marketing Mix

The marketing mix that is employed by the organization for the purpose of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is a comprehensive one in which major stress is put on promotion and creating awareness while celebrity endorsement and sponsorships are also actively used.

Promotions

The promotion of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival event is conducted through television ad campaigns, radio advertisements, online advertisements, out door advertisements, media and press releases as well as through brand based marketing by the City of Melbourne. The organization has formed strategic partnerships and alliances with local and international media partners like local radio stations, as well as BBC Australian food to promote the event (Melbourne Food and Wine Festival presented by The Age Sponsors 2009). The Tourism board also promotes the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in its tourism brochures and publications targeting tourists to Australia.

Products

The products that are offered to the public through the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival are impressive selections of outdoor, BBQ and classical Australian food. Modern fusion based food is also showcased in the festival along with the regional selection of wines from the local cellars. The services provided are in the form of experiences through the various events comprising the festival.

Pricing

The pricing of the events and product/ service provided are all structured to suit the budget of all visiting the festival. While indulgent and classical cuisine is priced significantly high, there is free food and sample tasting available that is not priced and provided free to the visitors of the festival. “The festival is not all about decadent and expensive feasts, though. O’Brien points out that there is a selection of price ranges (and some free gigs, such as the Taste of Slow Spoken Word series) and events designed to appeal to all tastes and ages” (Sutherland 2008).

Legal and Risk Management

Legal Issues and Insurance

The legal issues that the festival has to deal with are accommodating the visitors, making way for hygiene in the preparation of food, acquiring healthy food sources, as well as maintaining the standards of quality of food according to its claims. The Insurance aspect is covered by the financial partners of the organization and involves getting insurance for protection of the stakeholders of the Melbourne Food and Drink Festival.

Risk Management

No information was officially available on the risk management aspect. However it can be extrapolated from the role that the Melbourne Food and Drink Organization plays in the festival that the organization and its Board is responsible for the management and the mitigation of risks.

Evaluation of the Festival

Purpose of the Evaluation

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival was selected for evaluation through this report in order to determine what are the main characteristics of the festival and what contributions it makes to the local community, stakeholders of the festival, regional state and the country of Australia in terms of revenues, tourism and development.

Impact of the Festival

The festival has a very string impact on the economy of Australia. It provides immense contributions to the tourism and hospitality industry as well as business opportunities to local businesses in Melbourne and the state of Victoria. “It makes a major economic contribution to Victoria, with last year’s event attracting around 300,000 people, who spent an estimated $10 million in our restaurants, bars, markets and shops” (Top Chefs to Join Celebrities in Culinary Cook Off 2004).

The festival helps mark Melbourne as the food and culture epicenter of Australia. The heritage of the region as well as its history is depicted through the integration of the food, art and architecture of the region. “The festival inevitably combines a passion for food and wine with a celebration of what makes Melbourne unique, but this link is more pronounced this year. ‘The city’s laneways and rooftops, its art and architecture, the river – and all the global cultures that have come together here – will serve as a distinct backdrop to a celebration of food and wine,’ says chief executive Natalie O’Brien” (Sutherland 2008).

Through the festival awareness is created about diverse kinds of food and gastronomic dishes amongst the public while showcasing life in Melbourne. “The festival provides a terrific opportunity for visitors and residents to discover our abundance of world class wines, some of the world’s freshest produce and our great mix of cuisines from all round the world” (Media Release: Top Chefs to Join Celebrities in Culinary Cook Off 2004).

The festival is suited for the masses regardless of their age and their budget as it tends to cater to everyone tastes and requirements. “Cooking classes are held children the kids are taken under the Australian master chefs and are taught the finer nuances of cooking in a program tailor made for them. World’s longest lunch in the country are celebrated across twenty-five locales. Spice bazaar at Victoria harbor docklands are a new entry on 2004 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. The fair was an eye opener regarding the variety of spices and their distinct flavors.” (Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, 2004) Visitors to the festival can enjoy alfresco foods take classes in making different cuisines as ell as rub shoulders with celebrity chefs and other celebrities form all over the world.

Feedback and Support to the Community

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival opens doors for business providing the local businesses with avenues of displaying their wares to the mass public and reaping revenues form operation. The Melbourne Food and Wine Organization provides support to local food and wine related business in terms of funding their operations based on their business synergies, values and goals. “Melbourne Food and Wine operates as a not-for-profit organization and seeks to work with like-minded groups in order to foster and support causes we feel passionate about. As a not-for-profit, we have limited funds to donate to such causes, so we instead choose to offer our services in various ways whether it be utilizing our existing knowledge or industry contacts to assist the efforts of other causes” (Working with the community 2009).

Recommendations

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is exceptionally managed and has a positive impact on the stakeholders of the event including the visitors and the economy of the region. However some recommendations are stated below that can aid the Board of the festival to further improve the festival.

Increasing Community Involvement and Ownership

While currently the festival welcomes the local community to become involved in the festival through participation, volunteering and exhibiting local businesses in the festival, strategies can be employed to further improve community involvement and ownership. The festival can help support the local food and wine based businesses through the revenues reaped form the festival while strategic marketing and promotion programs can be launched outside of the festival dates to promote local food amongst the regional people as well as other international visitors to the region. Aside from this the festival can also help support the launch and establishment of businesses by financially supporting them or providing them with management resources.

Increasing Attendance by Locals and Visitors

A research undertaken by Yuan, Cai, Morrison and Linton focused on attendance motivation factors for those who attended food and wine festivals. The findings the research “showed that attendees were motivated by a variety of factors which were associated with the focus on the different elements incorporated in the theme of the festival — a synergy of wine, travel and special event” (Yuan et al. 2005).

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival incorporates art, architecture and historical association between the food showcased at the festival and the history behind it. Theme based events are also organized which further increase the motivation of the attendees. However in order to encourage the local as well as the international visitors to the festival, the festival organizers can use the strategy suggested by Lee et al, (2003) and provide nationality based and regional selections of foods in separate smaller events in the festival.

This can increase the appeal of the festival amongst the regional tourists who seek diverse culinary experiments as well as the international tourists who can enjoy the food from different parts of the world as well as that local to the region of Australia and Melbourne. The multiple number of events in the festival will attract multiple types of visitors (Nicholson and Pearce 2000) therefore increasing overall visitor attendance.

Historical and Cultural Understanding

The historical and cultural understanding amongst the visitors can be further promoted by providing visitors with published media like brochures, booklets and leaflets on the food and the wine being exhibited and sold at the festival. The established restaurants and chefs can provide their own published material on their food and the culture and heritage of the food. The small regional food and wine based businesses participating in the festival on the other hand can be provided with published material that would be specially developed for them by the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Organization at minimal cost. This would help in encouraging knowledge transfer about the history of the food showcased at the festival as well as provide support to the local and regional food and wine industry.

Financial and Environmental Impacts

The financial impact of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is significant as it is one of the major contributors of revenue and growth to the local to tourism and hospitality industry. “In the current global environment the relationship between food and tourism therefore represents a significant opportunity product development as well as a means to rural diversification. Specialized products offer the opportunity for the development of visitor product through rural tours, direct purchasing form farm, specialized restaurant menus with an emphasis on local food and home stays” (Hall et al. 2003).

On the other hand the environmental impact of the festival has to be reduced in terms of its carbon foot print has to be reduced. In order to reduce the negative environmental impact with the large scaled food and wine festival the likes of Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, the organization should take initiatives to use recyclable packaging for food, recyclable and reusable cutlery and dinnerware as well as environmental friendly materials in their advertisement and promotional material;. The company should additionally employ energy efficient gadgets to control the use of electricity during the festival as well as incorporate waste management and recycling policy under its sustainable community and environmental objects.

References

(Minister for State and Regional Development) 2004, Top Chefs to Join Celebrities in Culinary Cook Off, media release, 15 March, State Government of Victoria, Australia. Web.

(Melbourne Food and Wine) 2009, 200 events over 17 days: Festival Showcases Melbourne’s iconic food and wine scene, media release, Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Presented by The Age. Web.

About Us 2009, Melbourne Food and Wine. Web.

Feast your senses in Melbourne 2008, Australasian Business Intelligence. Web.

Dodd, TH 1995, ‘Opportunities and Pitfalls of Tourism in a Developing Wine Industry’, International Journal of Wine Marketing, Vol. 7, Issue 1, 5-16. Web.

Getz, D, Dowling, R, Carlesen, J, & Anderson, D 1999, ‘Critical Success Factors for Wine Tourism’, International Journal of Wine Marketing, Vol. 11, Issue 3, 20-43. Web.

Hall, CM, Sharples, L, Mitchell, R, Macionis, N, & Cambourne, B 2003, Food Tourism around the World: Development, Management, and Markets, Butterworth-Heinemann.

Hjalager, AM, Richards, G, & Minho 2002, Tourism and Gastronomy, Routledge.

Lee, C, Lee, Y, & Wicks, BE 2003, ‘Segmentation of Festival Motivation by Nationality and Satisfaction’, Elsevier Science Ltd. Web.

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 2004, Asia Rooms. Web.

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival presented by The Age SPONSORS 2009’, Melbourne Food and Wine. Web.

Melbourne: Food and Wine Festival 2009 – 7-23 March 2009 2009, Visit Vineyards. Web.

Nicholson, R, & Pearce, DG 2000, ‘Who goes to events: A comparative analysis of the profile characteristics of visitors to four South Island events in New Zealand’, Journal of Vacation Marketing, Vol. 6, No. 3, 236-253. Web.

Rand, GD, Heath, E, & Alberts, N 2003, ‘The Role of Local and Regional Food in Destination Marketing: A South African Situation Analysis, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, Volume 14, Issue 3, 97 – 112. Web.

Sutherland, D 2008, ‘Melbourne Food & Wine Festival’, WA Today Executive Style. Web.

What makes a Melbourne Food and Wine Legend 2009, Melbourne Food and Wine. Web.

Working with the community 2009, Melbourne Food and Wine. Web.

Yuan, JJ, Cai, LA, Morrison, AM, & Linton, S 2005, ‘An analysis of wine festival attendees’ motivations: A synergy of wine, travel and special events’, Journal of Vacation Marketing, Vol. 11, No. 1, 41-58. Web.