Destination and Industry Development
Capability Programs, Industry Strategy and Regional Growth
Visit Victoria’s 2026 NFL Industry Briefing - Guest Speaker
Strategy and Capability for the Visitor Economy
You have the plan. Getting operators to act on it is the hard part…
I build both: strategy your industry helps shape, and the capability in your operators to deliver it.
I have worked at both ends of this. At Visit Victoria I led wine tourism strategy for the state, and before that Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, so I know how statewide programs get built, how a funding case is made, and what a board needs to see at the other end. I have also spent years working directly with the operators those programs are aimed at, which is where a strategy either lands or does not.
Most people in this market have one of those two. Having both is what makes a regional program work.
Recent regional work: Greater Geelong and The Bellarine's first agritourism roadmap, Geelong Wine's operating framework built with the members themselves, the 2030 strategic plan for Grampians Grape Escape, and industry capability programs with Tourism Midwest Victoria.
Food and drink tourism is my niche but I have worked across the wider visitor economy too, including major events. A region's food and drink offer only performs when it connects to everything else drawing visitors in.
Who I Work With
Visitor Economy Partnerships and regional tourism organisations
Local government tourism and economic development teams
Wine, food and drinks industry associations
State tourism and industry agencies
Regional festivals and major events
Producer, operator and member networks
How I Help Regions and Industry Bodies Grow
-
Practical modules built for operators, not for marketers. Delivered in person, usually a half day, for up to twenty businesses at a time. This includes:
Program design against what your members actually asked for
Cellar door and venue performance
Email, CRM and database growth
Digital advertising and paid media for small operators
Visitor experience and product readiness
Pricing and yield
Workbooks and take-home tools so the session outlasts the day
Post-session survey and reporting back to your board
-
Research, industry consultation and a strategic framework your team can carry once I have gone. Built with your operators rather than written at them, because a plan nobody helped build is a plan nobody picks up.
This includes:
Sector and market research
Operator and stakeholder consultation
Opportunity and gap analysis
Strategic framework development
Priority setting and sequencing
Roadmap or plan co-authored with your team
Measures your board will recognise
-
Conference sessions, member events and industry forums. Built on what is working in cellar doors and venues right now rather than on general marketing theory, and pitched at operators who have no marketing background.
This includes:
Keynote and breakout sessions
Panel hosting and facilitation
Member and AGM presentations
Conference program input
Pre-work and follow-up materials
-
Most regional wine plans are written for export and wholesale. Mine take a visitation lens, which is usually what a tourism body is funding in the first place.
This includes:
Cellar door experience and service design
Visitor journey mapping across a region
Converting visitation into club and database growth
Regional wine tourism positioning
Collaboration between producers and hospitality
Benchmarking against comparable regions
-
A region cannot market experiences it does not have. This is the work of getting operators to a standard where a campaign has something to point at.
This includes:
Product audit across the region
Readiness assessment against distribution requirements
Experience development with individual operators
Packaging and bookability
Trade and distribution pathways
Identifying which operators are worth investing in first
-
Getting a room of competing operators to agree on something, and getting it written down before the energy goes. I facilitate, capture and document, so what was agreed survives the day.
This includes:
Roundtables and industry workshops
Member consultation sessions
Board and committee facilitation
Written outputs from every session
Consultation summaries for public processes
Success Stories
FAQs
-
Both, and the programs work better when it is both. I build with your team and deliver to your members.
-
Yes. Most capability programs run as a series across a region rather than a single session in one town.
-
I can build the evidence base and the strategic case that sits inside a submission, and I run post-session surveys and reporting so you have something to give a board or a funding body.
-
Up to twenty in a half day session. Beyond that it stops being practical and becomes a presentation.
-
Yes, with travel quoted separately.
Working out what your members need next?
I'll help you build a program or a strategy your operators will actually use.
Book a free 30-minute call—no pressure, just practical ideas.