Working on Wurundjeri land
Working on Wurundjeri land
People rarely travel somewhere just to eat, yet food and drink are often the reason they choose one destination over another.
A great meal, a charismatic winemaker, a Sunday morning market wander. These are the moments that become stories when visitors get home. They shape how a place is remembered and often decide whether someone returns.
We see it repeatedly across regional campaigns. Visitors might arrive for scenery, heritage or a major event, but food and drink deepen the experience into something memorable. It’s not just our food-loving bias — industry research increasingly points to the same conclusion.
Here are five experiences that consistently turn curiosity into visitation, and how destinations can leverage them.
Cellar doors remain one of regional tourism’s most effective drawcards. They combine place, product and personality in a single experience.
Visitors meet the makers, hear how the season shaped the vintage and sit among the vines.
A bottle purchased at the cellar door carries more than its retail value. It becomes a reminder of the experience, opened later with friends or saved for a special occasion.
Wineries also shape how visitors move through a region. Travellers map out cellar door stops, book lunch nearby and often stay overnight rather than heading straight home. One tasting can easily lead to a restaurant booking, an accommodation stay and a visit to another local attraction.
Some restaurants have the power to put a town on the map.
People will travel for a meal that feels distinctive and reflects the landscape around it.
Regional restaurants often have a natural advantage through close relationships with growers, seasonal produce and menus shaped by the seasons.
Destination dining also creates anticipation. Guests book weeks ahead, build a weekend around the reservation and treat the meal as a highlight of the trip.
The effect spreads beyond the dining room. A strong restaurant scene raises the profile of an entire destination, attracting media attention and drawing in travellers who may never have considered visiting otherwise.
Produce trails tap into a simple instinct: the desire to discover.
Give travellers a route rather than a single stop. A cheesemaker down the road, an olive grove worth pulling over for, and a bakery known for its sourdough.
Each stop becomes a small connection with the landscape and the people producing food there. Visitors begin to understand what grows locally and why it matters.
For destinations, trails encourage movement through a region. They spread visitation beyond one town and create reasons to spend a full day, or several, exploring.
Markets and food festivals create both a reason and a moment to visit.
Unlike permanent attractions, they are tied to time. They bring energy, atmosphere and a sense of occasion that cannot easily be replicated.
Food festivals build momentum, bringing together chefs, producers, entertainment and storytelling in a shared celebration.
For regional destinations, these events do more than fill accommodation rooms. They build community pride and strengthen the region’s identity as somewhere worth travelling for.
Every region has something locals are quietly proud of.
It might be a bakery item people queue for, like Ballarat’s Best Pie, or produce that grows better here than anywhere else.
These specialities create a sense of discovery. Visitors love the feeling they have found something authentic.
When the experience is distinctive enough, it becomes a story people pass on and media love to share.
When destinations tell these stories well, visitors understand why the experience matters and how to discover it for themselves.
That is where thoughtful marketing makes the difference: crafting connections between producers, venues and local character into something travellers can picture, plan and taste.
If you are a regional operator or destination looking to better tell your own food story, that is exactly the kind of work we love doing at littleBIG.
