Brisbane: Australia’s next culinary capital
All the trends are pointing in one direction: it won’t be long before Brisbane will replace Sydney and Melbourne as Australia’s leading food hub.
That’s the forecast from The Star Entertainment Group CEO Matt Bekier.
Consider this: Brisbane’s dining scene will get another 50 new bars and restaurants from the $3 billion Queens Wharf development alone.
Add to that Queensland’s other growth industry, tourism. The growing trend of celebrity chefs and reality TV shows is seeing more travellers taking dining and food into account when they’re making decisions.
The figures from Tourism Australia tell the story. Since the launch of its Restaurant Australia campaign in 2013, food and wine spending has soared by 29 per cent to more than $1 billion per year.
That puts the city in a good position to overtake Sydney and Melbourne, says Bekier.
“Food is hugely important to the domestic tourism market and there is a real opportunity to position Brisbane as Australia’s food capital,” Mr Bekier told the Courier Mail.
“Particularly in terms of seafood, or beef and other produce, people can come here to our restaurants and actually eat the food where it is grown or harvested.”
Star’s head of business development Michael Hodgson, a former food and wine adviser to Tourism Australia, concurs with Bekier.
Brisbane, he says, has all the potential and is filled with talent.
“There’s already a lot of talented people in the state and hopefully this attracts more. People have left Queensland to go to other states to work with high-end chefs and may well want to return,’’ Mr Hodgson told the Courier Mail.
Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Daniel Gschwind pointed to the state’s climate. The southern capital just don’t have it.
“There’s no reason Queensland can’t be at the top of the menu,” Mr Gschwind told the Courier Mail.
“We have produce that really encapsulates the great climate that we have from the tropics to the Darling Downs. The sunshine is captured in our food really in a feast for the senses.”
by Leon Gettler, August 29th 2017
