Winemaker slams NSW tourism officials over lack of wine show promotion
Updated
One of the Hunter Valley's leading winemakers has blasted New South Wales tourism officials for failing to properly support the industry.
Andrew Margan from Margan Wines said Hunter wine country was the state's biggest tourism drawcard outside of Sydney, yet continually failed to attract government funding.
"There's a problem or disconnection with our state government tourism authority and what the New South Wales wine industry is doing and needing, and they don't seem to value us sufficiently," he said.
"I am just at a loss as to why Destination NSW don't rate us as much as they should.
"There is a clear understanding of how valuable wine tourism has become, how valuable it is to our economy, and tourism has just taken over from coal as our number one income-generating activity, and wine tourism is a signifcant part of that."
No support for German wine show
Mr Margan is heading to the internationally-renowned trade show ProWein in Germany this month, where he said other states will have government-supported promotions to lure tourists to their wineries.
"The South Australian tourism authority is sponsoring certain workshops over in Germany, connected to this fair, to promote wine tourism into South Australia," Mr Margan said.
"That's an example of a state government that works very closely with their wine industry, and Victoria is the same, and Western Australia is the same."
He said New South Wales, as a brand, was falling behind the other states when it came to global promotion.
"One hundred per cent we are getting left behind, and will continue to do so until we get some recognition from our government bodies, and some help and some assistance," he said.
He said individual wineries were being forced to fund international promotion out of their own pockets, while the government reaped the rewards of increased tourism revenue.
"At the end of the day it's all operator funded, and to continue to promote a region like the Hunter Valley using operator funding is really, really difficult.
"It appears the other states recognise that and financially support wine tourism industries within their states, and here in NSW it just doesn't happen.
"We've got the product, we've got all the plans, we've got the people, we've got the resources, we've got everything except for the dollars and sense to actually make it happen."
Tourism body shares funding concerns
Mr Margan's concerns are backed up by the Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association.
General manager Jo Thomas said the local wine sector did not get enough support for the amount of tourists it attracted.
"Basically, you know without a healthy wine industry we don't have tourism here in the Hunter Valley, and most of the time producers here in the Hunter Valley are self-funding their own missions and trade shows in the international market," she said.
"If they weren't doing that we would have no tourism here in the Hunter Valley."
Ms Thomas said local operators would like to work more with Destination NSW promoting wine tourism, to benefit everybody.
"Everything that we do is helping New South Wales and Sydney in terms of international tourism. Sydney has great benefit out of all the promotion and trade missions we do out of our regions," she said.
She said Destination NSW knew too well about the frustration of Hunter vignerons.
"They are very much aware — we have a continuous open line to Destination NSW, there's just not a lot being done about it at this point," she said.
"To be fair to Destination NSW they have to share the love, but the Hunter Valley is the number one destination outside of Sydney so it's important they look at the hero destinations and continue to support those industries."
Destination NSW said it actively supported the state's food and wine industry through marketing and promoting wine tourism destinations and experiences.
However, it said the promotion and marketing of wine as an export commodity did not fall within its remit.
The ABC has contacted both the Tourism and Industry Ministers for comment.
Topics: viticulture, tourism, cessnock-2325, pokolbin-2320
First posted
