Brisbane Tourism News: Food Festival First for Brisbane "Delectable"

Brisbane is set to become the winter culinary capital following the Queensland Government's announcement that the riverside city will host a brand new food festival - delectable - from 16-29 July.

An initiative of the Queensland Government through Events, delectable will celebrate Queensland produce, farmers and chefs, and bring to life key outdoor spaces across Brisbane through an exciting program of music, food and entertainment.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk welcomed the announcement and said delectable was sure to be a popular fixture on Brisbane's event calendar.

"delectable Brisbane will provide visitors and Brisbane residents alike with the opportunity to indulge in 13 days of home-grown food, music, interactive gardens, educational programs and chef demonstrations," Cr Quirk said.

"I want Brisbane to be Australia's new world city and events like this will help strengthen that reputation, by showcasing our excellent local restaurants, producers and chefs."

Launching delectable on 16 July will be the delicious. Produce Awards 2012 - to be presented in Queensland for the first time in its seven year history.

"We are really pleased to be hosting the delicious. Produce Awards in Queensland for the first time and to support the delectable festival and local growers and producers,” delicious. Editor in Chief Trudi Jenkins said.

"The Produce Awards encourage, showcase and reward producers, build awareness of culinary regions and recognise fresh, seasonal food that is produced with integrity and using ecologically sustainable farming methods and production processes."

ARIA restaurant Owner and Chef, Matt Moran is a judge of the delicious. Produce Awards 2012 and will showcase his expertise and award-winning menu at Delectable.

"We are thrilled to be participating in Delectable. It's great to have an event that is all about fresh local produce happening here in Brisbane," Mr Moran said.

"At ARIA we are passionate about local, fresh produce and so this event will be great to showcase the great producers of Queensland. We are thrilled to be participating in the event."

A highlight of the delectable program will be the Food Bowl event - offering visitors the opportunity to taste and experience menus from some of Brisbane's most sought after restaurants in one location including Shinichi Maeda of Sake Brisbane, Tank's Alastair McLeod, Matt Moran of ARIA and David Pugh of Restaurant Two.

delectable will be held from Monday 16 to Sunday 29 July 2012 in Brisbane.

Food Festival First for Brisbane

Virgin Adds Gladstone Flights

“We’re pleased to be able to provide these additional services to the Gladstone community in recognition of the support they have given to Virgin Australia. 

“Having commenced (services using the ATR turboprop aircraft) late last year, it is very pleasing to see such a positive response to the introduction of competition to the route. Our value for money fares and timetable clearly appeal to both the corporate and leisure markets.

“Connection times in Brisbane also mean that our guests can connect to our domestic and international services or onto partner airlines,” she says.

“We now operate more than 200 ATR flights each week within Queensland, the ACT and New South Wales. The ATR is proving to be an extremely popular aircraft across our network,” she adds. 

Virgin Adds Gladstone Flights

Queensland Gets Exposed to 40,000 Cruise Passengers

Video clips of Queensland will be beamed to approximately 40,000 passengers on Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL) thanks to a filming familiarisation in the state this week.

The famil, organised by Tourism Queensland and Abercombie and Kent, is taking an RCCL representative on a tour of Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Tropical North Queensland.

“This visit is a huge coup given the international exposure for Queensland and global reputation of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines,” Hayes said.

“Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines is a world-recognised cruise company with a fleet of 20 ships and a fleet capacity of 51,468. Its ships visit destinations such as Alaska, Asia, New Zealand, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, Hawaii and South America. This famil is allowing the cruise line to film and eventually showcase to its passengers some of the fantastic experiences Queensland has to offer and hopefully entice them to book a cruise to the Sunshine State.

“I understand four of the company’s cruise ships will visit Australia next year which will allow approximately 40,000 passengers to collectively make 20 port visits in Queensland.”

Hayes said that while in Brisbane, the RCCL rep would cruise the Brisbane River and visit a local wildlife sanctuary.

“They will also taste some Brisbane cuisine when they visit the new restaurant precinct at South Bank and do some wine tasting in the Greater Brisbane region,” he said.

“They will visit a zoo on the Sunshine Coast, take in the art and craft delights of the Gold Coast hinterland and stop into Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast. They will then head to Tropical North Queensland where they will experience the iconic Great Barrier Reef, World Heritage-listed Daintree rainforest and local Indigenous culture.

“All this will be captured on film which will then be displayed onboard all Royal Caribbean Cruise vessels visiting Australia next year.”

Tourism Queensland has increased its focus on the cruise industry in response to the continuous growth the cruise market has experienced in recent years.

Between 2010 and 2011 cruise shipping generated an estimated AUD368 million in Queensland. During the same year, 328,863 passengers visited Queensland ports, an increase of 2.8% compared to 319,761 passengers the previous year.

Hayes said following the familiarisation Tourism Queensland would hold a number of ‘Cruise Market’ industry workshops in mid-May and throughout June.

“These workshops will provide local operators with the fundamentals about the cruise market and explain the benefits of the market,” he said.

A list of locations and dates for the workshops are detailed below:

Cairns – 9:30am-1:00pm, Friday 11 May at Pullman Reef Hotel Casino
Brisbane – 10:00am-1.30pm, Monday 4 June at Moda Events Portside
Gold Coast – 9:00am-12:30pm, Tuesday 5 June at Southport Yacht Club
Whitsundays – 8:45am-12:30pm, Wednesday 13 June at Peppers Coral Coast Resort, Airlie Beach

(Source: eglobaltravelmedia.com.au)

It's Business Time: Flight Of The Conchords Announce Aussie Tour Dates

Song in their heart, laugh in their belly: Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Picture: Channel Ten

AFTER sell-out tours in New Zealand, Kiwi comedy duo Flight of the Conchords will cross the Tasman for their first-ever run of Australian headline shows.

Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, who claim to be "New Zealand’s best export after sheep’s wool", will perform six shows in July.

"We are finally returning to Australia. Mostly to apologise,'' Clement said.

Flight of the Conchords have come a long way since winning Best Newcomer at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival more than a decade ago.

After getting their start in stand up comedy, they created a radio series for BBC Radio 2 before making the acclaimed HBO comedy series Flight of the Conchords.

The series earned them a massive 10 Emmy nominations and a WGA nomination for Best Comedy Series.

Tickets go on sale on Tuesday 17 April via www.frontiertouring.com/fotc

Tour dates for Flight of the Conchords' Australian tour:

- Sydney Opera House - Thursday, July 5
- Brisbane Entertainment Centre - Saturday, July 7
- Newcastle Entertainment Centre - Tuesday, July 10
- WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong - Wednesday, July 11
- The Plenary, Melbourne - Saturday, July 14
- Challenge Stadium, Perth - Wednesday, July 18
It's Business Time: Flight Of The Conchords Announce Aussie Tour Dates

Easter Special at Metro Hotel and Apartments Gladstone

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China Our Tourism Salvation

THE Sunshine Coast's increasing focus on the Chinese tourism market has been given the seal of approval by an international expert.

Dr Scott Richardson, an advisor to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, said new figures showed Chinese international tourism receipts rose 38 per cent last year.

Overall international tourist numbers jumped from 939 million in 2010 to 980 million in 2011 and were expected to reach the one billion mark this year.

This number will continue to grow and is expected to reach 1.8 billion international tourist arrivals by 2030.

With those sorts of figures in mind, the Sunshine Coast tourism industry has been heavily involved with Tourism Queensland pushes into the Chinese market and worked closely with council to host a string of delegations.

The Hyatt Regency Coolum resort last year introduced Chinese language brochures, menus and maps as well as employing a Chinese-speaking guest liaison officer as part of a broad-ranging bid to break into the lucrative market.

Noosa Chamber of Commerce has called for all school students to be taught Mandarin while direct flights to China will be one of the first priorities once Sunshine Coast Airport is upgraded to international standard.

A visit last November by officials from the Shaanxi Province of Tongchuan to discuss tourism and business opportunities prompted Sunshine Cost Destinations CEO Steve Cooper to proclaim the region was on the brink of "boom times".

Dr Richardson agreed, saying the Coast was poised to take advantage of a massive market.

"The potential to capitalise on an influx of Chinese tourists is huge and being part of the Asia-Pacific means Australia is in a perfect position to take advantage of their close proximity," he said.

"It also creates amazing opportunities for tourism graduates over the coming years, whether they are in the Australian tourism industry or pursuing the array of opportunities in China itself."

While the tourism industry had gone through a tough few years, Dr Richardson said his last quarterly Sunshine Coast tourism report to the UNWTO indicated an increase in revenue and activity.

"Last quarter was very positive for the industry, with things starting to settle down and people feeling freer to travel and spend their money," he said.

"The people I've talked to across the Sunshine Coast are noticing this."

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Brisbane's Queen Street Mall Loses its Focus as People-Friendly Precinct

AT WHAT point does a pedestrian mall cease to be a mall and become a drinking and dining precinct through which pedestrians are funnelled, forced to negotiate its canyons as best they can?

It is a question that needs an answer, for Brisbane's Queen Street Mall is no longer the people-friendly place envisioned by its creators.

The last car drove down Queen St in 1981 and the mall was opened the following year, in time for the Commonwealth Games, initially bound by Edward and Albert streets.

I waited patiently for trams in Queen St as a youth, standing in the optimistically named Safety Zones in the middle of the road.

The Mt Gravatt tram would then trundle across the Victoria Bridge and turn left, my nostrils wrinkling as it passed The Fish Board, before carrying me on to my stop at Holland Park.

Queen St had been a thoroughfare since the colony's earliest days and its closure to vehicular traffic and transformation into a mall - denounced by critics as trendy town-planning madness that would cause traffic chaos - has been a spectacular success.

Along the way, however, its character has changed and it is time that the city reviewed how it looks and how it works.

Restaurants have gradually encroached on the thoroughfare.

Competing for space and attention with the restaurants are two newsagencies, a juice bar, a large visitors' centre and a stage from which lingerie models were banned mid-parade last week when their French knickers were deemed inappropriate by Brisbane Marketing.

The eateries are as much - or more - about drinking as eating, with roughly half their floor space taken up with tall drinking stands and red vinyl bar stools.

At least one adds flat-screen television sets to the mix.

"Catch all your live sport here in HD - open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," proclaim the signs.

You might well ask if the mood and atmosphere of our subtropical capital is effectively captured by a bunch of beer drinkers sitting around in shorts and singlets watching some games of English soccer on television.

There is a tired sameness about the food and beverage venues, with their plastic-sheafed tourist menus.

The image is completely at odds with the critically acclaimed restaurants in the Eagle St precinct, which represent, in part, the true dining heart of the city.

Put simply, some of the restaurants do not present well. They possess neither chic nor style.

They are public bars serving pub food in the middle of the city's premier shopping zone.

I'll be accused of being elitist for saying so, but so be it.

I've been accused of worse crimes.

Simply, it is possible to project a casual ambience and still be inclusive and I refuse to concede that mediocrity is a virtue.

These venues need to undergo a complete refurbishment for, as they stand, they do the city a disservice.

Apart from their lack of aesthetic appeal, there are too many of them.

The juice bar should be relocated away from the mall.

When I visited last week, the cardboard boxes of carrots and oranges stacked beside it did nothing for the visual appeal of the mall.

Aesthetics aside, they intrude too much into the mall and impede pedestrian traffic.

Walk up from Edward St and the sprawl of the eateries forces you into a narrow channel where you battle against the opposing tide of humanity to make headway.

The Brisbane City Council has allowed these establishments to take over the mall and must make a considerable amount of money from the rent it charges them.

The concept behind the mall, however, was for it to be an amenity for citizens and visitors, a free-flowing oasis in the city heart, not a revenue stream for the Brisbane City Council.

In April, the $100 million renovation of the Wintergarden Centre opens.

This is as good a catalyst as any for a hard look at the mall and how it presents to the 26 million people who visit the precinct each year.

The Wintergarden project's development director, Chris McCluskey, voices the concerns of a number of tenants whose businesses line the mall and the owners of international brands who have spent significantly on shop fit-outs in the new centre.

"The landlords and the investors are doing these things and the city needs to do a bit of it by looking at how the mall is formed now," McCluskey says.

"Universally, the comment I get is that there is not enough space for people to walk around.

"There's too much clutter. Some of it is necessary and you need food and beverage outlets and a visitor information centre but is it composed the right way?

"Is what we offer appropriate for 2012 and beyond? They are the questions that are being asked."

Walking up the mall towards the Victoria Bridge, you come across a bare expanse of sun-baked stone outside the casino, a lesser version of the man-made Death Valley that is the City Square.

Beyond that lies South Bank, shimmering across the river like a mirage. How to get there? Trudge across the bridge in 100 per cent humidity with not a suggestion of shade to be found.

The mall, surely, should flow into South Bank and be linked to it by, at the very least, a covered walkway.

The city is changing. The mall needs to change with it.

Brisbane's Queen Street Mall Loses its Focus as People-Friendly Precinct