When Executive Officer of Ultimate Winery Experiences Australia Sally Cope spoke at the inaugural Destional Food conference in Sydney this week, she had Travel Agents front of mind. She knows exactly what makes you tick: commission, the ability to impress clients and of course WINE.
Ultimate Winery Experiences Australia is a collective marketing organisation curating exclusive visitor experiences at select Australian wineries.
They have 100 pre-bookable experiences on offer and most importantly they pay Travel Agents between 10 and 15% commission for booking them.
“We’ve got the product that makes you look like an expert.”
Executive Officer of Ultimate Winery Experiences Australia Sally Cope.
“If you’ve got a discerning customer it’s great to be able to say ‘I can get you behind the scenes here,'” she said.
Sally said it’s unrealistic to expect Travel Agents to be experts on absolutely everything.
“Just tell me what your client wants and we will curate the experience.”
Sally Cope
Food and beverage tourism is a rapidly growing industry internationally and research shows that, for many tourists, the trend is now to experience more “authentic” and “off the beaten track” destinations rather than the more traditional “touristy”.
For this reason, Sally’s team curates experiences that go beyond visiting venues to taste and purchase wine to offer behind the scenes winery experiences.
This could be anything from tutored wine tasting, meeting the winemakers and a wine blending lesson to a scenic flight, a bike ride or 4WD tour.
“It’s about inviting guests beyond the cellar door to indulge their senses.”
Executive Officer of Ultimate Winery Experiences Australia Sally Cope.
The demand for bespoke winery experiences is only rising, with the growth in visitor spend up 15% year on year.
Sally also predicts that hotels in vineyards will be the next big trend.
“There something very romantic about staying in the vines and I know quite a few people who are talking accommodation,” she said during her talk.
You may have met Sally at various trade shows across the country and she was probably serving you wine.
“We’ve learned the fastest way to win over travel trade is to serve them wine,” she laughed.
Ultimate Winery Experiences Australia also runs famils to get people out and about and understanding what it is they do.
Click here for more information.
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