Positively Wellington Tourism in Asia-Pacific PR Awards

19 August, 2011

Positively Wellington Tourism Promotion Short-listed Alongside Industry Heavyweights in Asia-Pacific PR Awards

A pop up restaurant that transported Sydneysiders across to Wellington through taste, service and design has been short-listed amongst a who’s who of tourism in the Asia-Pacific SABRE Awards.

Positively Wellington Tourism (PWT)’s WLG pop up restaurant - which saw Wellington’s tourism organisation create and run a sell-out restaurant in Sydney’s Kings Cross for two weeks last September - is pitted against projects by Expedia, Madame Tussauds Hong Kong, Disneyland and Galaxy Macau in the awards’ Travel and Leisure category.

PWT Chief Executive David Perks says the ‘experiential marketing’ project set out to quash Australians’ misconceptions of the capital through showcasing its world class hospitality and cuisine. Run in conjunction with Australian PR agency Hill & Knowlton, WLG became the fastest selling restaurant event ever on www.timeoutsydney.com.au, served some 3000 guests and was the most blogged about restaurant in Sydney that month.

Four ‘chefs in residence’ – Boulcott Street Bistro’s Rex Morgan, Logan Brown’s Shaun Clouston, Capitol’s Tom Hutchison and Jacob Brown of The Larder – took control of the WLG kitchen in shifts across the two weeks. They were supported by 11 front-of-house staff and baristas direct from New Zealand’s capital of cool.

“Anyone who’s ever set up a business or run a restaurant will appreciate a lot of blood, sweat and almost tears went into making WLG happen,” Mr Perks says. “This is an incredible credit to the staff who worked tirelessly, the chefs who gave their time and the producers who provided the product.”

WLG was part of the regional There’s No Place Like Wellington campaign, which was launched in Sydney in March last year. Australian arrivals in Wellington are at an all-time high, with a 7% increase in direct arrivals in the year to June. Arrivals into the capital tripled national growth in May.

The campaign was recently extended to Melbourne, with plans to run a WLG pop up in November, Mr Perks says. The format of WLG Melbourne will likely differ to what was carried out in Sydney.

“Like cuisine, ideas are best kept fresh.”

ENDS

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