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Western Australia Commits More Funds to the Great Southern Food and Wine Festival

Announcement posted by William Bay Country Cottages 18 Feb 2013

Provider of cottage accommodation in Denmark, William Bay Country Cottages, forecasts very positive effect on regional tourism.
On 30th January, Tourism Council WA announced that the IGA Taste Great Southern Food and Wine Festival would be receiving more funding from the WA State Government through their Regional Events Program.

CEO Evan Hall expressed appreciation to Regional Development Minister Brendon Grylls and Tourism Minister Kim Hames, and expressed that the extra funding could be a boon to tourism in regional WA.

According to Hall, most regional tourism operators have had to make do with small budgets and rely mostly on volunteers to boost tourism in their regions. Hall feels that the extra funds will be a great help to some of the more cash-strapped and overworked tourism operators, and will help them attract more tourists to their various regions.

Hall is of the opinion that even a moderate amount of extra funds can help publicise regional festivals so that they are noticed in Perth or some of the bigger cities on the East Coast. Hall is cognisant of the effect of events like the Great Southern, and acknowledged that the festival is “highly effective at getting tourists… spending money on local accommodation… and tourist attractions.” Hall went on to call the increased funds for the festival a “great use of Government funding.”

Proprietors of accommodation and restaurants in the Denmark and Albany areas are especially excited, since most of the events associated with the festival are either in Denmark or Albany. The first event was Saturday 9th February in Denmark, and the final event will be Sunday 24th March in Denmark.

Some of the Denmark venues include the Forest Hill Winery, The Lake House Restaurant and Winery, the TASTE Beach BBQ at a location that will be announced on February 27, the MadFish Winery, Yilgarnia Wines and Wildflowers, Chimes Spa Retreat, and Singlefile Wines. Albany will use their Entertainment Centre for many of the events, and while more will be conducted in the Albany area. For more information, they invite you to visit their website, where the full schedule can also be found.

Brendan Laing, Owner of Denmark luxury accommodation William Bay Country Cottages, is excited about the news, and is in full festival mode: “We love Great Southern, and we are glad to see the festival getting more funding from the state. We say this a lot, but once someone visits us, they want to come back. Anything that helps us get more visitors will help us get more who visit us on a regular basis.“

Laing continued, “The Great Southern events are all wonderful, and a great drawing card, but we always hope that as many people as possible decide to check out some of the other things the Denmark area has to offer, too.  Many of the events are at our local wineries, for example, but there are many more. We also have world class restaurants, luxury accommodation, and a lot of parks, beaches, and natural attractions.”

Laing concluded, “A person could spend an entire year down here just sightseeing and trying out different attractions, but we think one week at our cottage accommodation in Denmark is a great place to start. You could visit a couple of wineries, a few restaurants, and take one or two days to just hang out in your cottage or maybe walk down to the beach.”

William Bay Country Cottages provide luxury holiday accommodation in Denmark WA.

For reservations or to check on holiday accommodation, please call 08 9840 9221 or check out their website: http://www.williambaycottages.com.au/.