Cover page
Hallmark
Introduction
Hallmark tourism events have profound implications on in creating the tourism of a particular area. This is an effective strategy used many courtiers for attracting foreigners from across the world. “Hallmark events have a tradition and a sense of place and this gives a destination a strong competitive advantage. Their regularity allows DMOs to gradually build them into the destination’s brand” CITATION WFr \l 1033 (Frost, 2012). The purpose of integrating such activities is to attain a competitive advantage in the global tourism markets. It also stresses on providing host community with the opportunity for securing high performance in the tourism industry. Although such events may involve some social and environmental costs they are crucial for enhancing economic activity.
The Bleach Festival is one of a significant hallmark events that was launched in 2015. The purpose of the event was to improve tourism at Currumbin Waters, Queensland, Australia. The festival attracted a larger crowd by setting a platform where tourists engaged with the community. The program also stresses on capturing the audience feedback. “Bleach Festival marks a vital development in the Gold Coast’s cultural identity local artists and producers can connect to each other and their audience” CITATION JMa14 \l 1033 (Mackellar, 2014). The event thus offers broader opportunities to the artist community for connecting with the world.
Hallmark event
Artist in Residence program of the Bleach Festival 2015 featured artists like Clare Bowditch and offered the opportunity for participating in the Culture Counts programs. The event involved free public concert and the workshop for artists for connecting with the artist community. The culture counts program permitted the gathering of the complete data for evaluating the personal and intrinsic responses of the visitors to the art. Individual experiences were also examined for assessing the implications of such events on future tourism. In the Bleach Festival, the artists managed to engage the audience emotionally that increased future prospects of its success. The collected revenues are also used for promoting tourism sustainability and its long-term development. The revenues collected through the Bleach Festival are also strengthening the economy through direct contribution to GDP.
The mission of Tourism Australia is “to build awareness of Australian leisure destinations among citizens and global customers to persuade them to visit Australia thoroughly”. The Gold Coast provides a beautiful view of sun, sand and opportunity for surfing. Bleach Festival is recognized as the prominent cultural festival of Queensland and is known for attracting hundreds of visitors each year. The popular event is linked to the tourism development of the city that provides economic resources for managing future sustainability. The facts reveal that tourists are more attracted to visit Queensland that further increase the opportunity for the Bleach Festival to capture a larger audience. The Bleach Festival has managed to establish a positive destination image that promotes positive perceptions of the people regarding the tourist event. This hallmark
Activities in Bleach Festival
The Bleach Festival has to position itself according to the needs of entertainment travellers and business opportunities seekers that are the target group of customers. The strategic goals of are to increase the demand of Australian destination as a brand, make the travel distribution system more robust than ever, ensure sustainability in the tourism industry, trade development initiatives, and promotion of consumer marketing. The festival is arranged annually at the Coolangatta Queensland near the surf coasts that engages the local arts community and the local people. The Festival holds significance for the local people because it provides significant opportunities to the local artists for sharing their talents. The Bleach Festival has played a positive role in transforming the image of outdoor film programs. The activities offered at the festival include live music, art performances, films and other related activities. The Bleach Festival is established for entertainment and cultural activities. The design of the program involve featured music performances and representation of the commercial aspects for examining incomes of the victors. Provision of art and entertainment is crucial for collecting revenues from visitors. Gold Coast has thus managed to create strong destination image and is more recognized for its surfing activity.
Culture-based image
The Bleach Festival has also played a dominant role in setting a culture based image of Gold Coast. This is crucial for attracting more tourist and creating more economic value for the region. The experiences and feedbacks of the tourists are obtained for evaluating the role of Bleach Festival and its impacts on the visitors. The central focus in to improve the experiences of the visitors for securing future tourism of the Gold Coast. The responses of the tourists depict that 36.2 percent enjoyed live music and entertainment. The responses also depict that 15 percent of the tourists liked the environment and atmosphere. The featured surf culture remains a prominent feature that creates an attraction for tourists. To extend visitation the Bleach Festival administration is focused on providing improved service to all foreign tourists. The sporting surf event has allowed Gold Coast to create good tourism for the local and foreign community.
Future of Bleach Festival
Due to increased economic gains, the Gold Coast and the tourism of Queensland have decided to capture wider tourism in the future. It stresses on engaging 28 unique productions with 132 performers and offering a 12 days festival. The event will target tourists from all across the world and adopt adequate marketing for grabbing their attention. The purpose is to provide amazing tourist experience to the visitors that will bring revenue and resources for the Gold Coast and Queensland. The strategy of the hallmark event is to capture more tourists from the world.
Economic impacts
The contribution of the Bleach Festival to tourism is also linked to improved economic aspects. There are economic aspects of tourism in Queensland including the generation of foreign exchange for the country. The tourism activity has a direct link with the economy because it is important to source for collection of revenue. The money paid by the foreign tourists on the sporting surf events, music, film and entertainment contribute to the collection of revenue. This allows the Gold Coast to generate adequate funds that are required for managing future tourism activities. This would help the optimum utilization of resources by public and private sectors. Gold Coast is formulating international treaties with various developing countries especially China and India from Asia. The improved cultural image created by Gold Coast through Bleach Festival allows establishing a positive relationship with the foreign communities.
Bleach Festival as a hallmark event has engaged in business level strategy as it is conducting research and development, innovation and advancement to make value addition in customer experiences. The tourism sector has to worry about customer service by rendering the best value services rather to beat the competition. The sustainable competitive advantages of the company include its competent team of management leading to innovation and strategic flexibility; its comprehensive governance structure ensuring transparency, accountability and reporting; its organizational structure that is adaptable to changing needs of market and customers.
The hallmark event contributes to the Gold Coast tourism industry that attracted around 85,000 people in 2019. Tourism remains a prominent activity that has been contributing to the overall development of the industry. The Bleach Festival is generating $5 billion in revenue each year that is contributing to the tourism of Gold Coast. Bleach Festival can encourage small businesses that have great opportunities for growth. Government has made a strategic plan by 2020 that would definitely boost up Gold Coast market share in the global tourism industry by analyzing changing needs of the market and rendering customer best experience. It is boosting economic development and employment by tourism and hospitality industry.
The emphasis of the hallmark event is to spur tourism in Australia by encouraging residents to move across the country and attract global customers towards country's leisure destinations in order to achieve sustainable tourism and economic development of the country. In order to achieve its mission, the company is formulating long term strategy and has spread its staff across the globe to promote Australian profile in the world tourism industry. The company believes in open communication between various government departments and ministries. Company is maintaining sound risk management practices. Implementation of best in class work practices with a competent appraisal system. Company has established transparency and accountability by effective governance mechanism.
Sustainable tourism is the most essential part of Tourism Australia's mission statement. Government agency is a strong believer of the preservation of natural resources. The company is of the argument that social and cultural experiences are the most important brand attributes of Australia that attract customers. Australian tourism is rich with natural resources and the company owes the liability to save these assets. In order to foster sustainable tourism, Tourism Australia works in alignment with industry partners, territorial tourism organizations, departments of tourism, resources and energy.
Gold Coast is serving local and international society with leisure and entertainment activities. Bleach Festival facilitates entertainment seekers and business travellers. it has a significant role in the country's tourism and hospitality that is attracting the world's travellers to act as employment booster. It is taking special care of American travellers that is the third largest country. It is arranging special packages and premium services for American travellers. The event has thus contributed to the overall improvement of the tourism at Gold Coast. The facts depict that this allows the state to generate $800 million from the hallmark event.
Impact of a hallmark event on employment
Bleach Festival is creating at least 41,000 jobs for the local people. the strategy of the Gold Coast is focused on increasing jobs for the people in the next years. The Gold Coast tourism states that this hallmark event remains a significant part of its tourism strategy.
Although, the Australian economy is running with consistent pace, adequate public finance, low unemployment, and controlled inflation Australia has to formulate a comprehensive policy to encounter population ageing. On the other side, Queensland labour market is organized by virtue of legalization that guarantees higher wage rates better conditions in the tourism industry. Gold Coast is experiencing enormous immigrations trends by trade with developing countries. Migrants from Australia are increasing due to the enhanced level of trade with Asia. Workforce diversity and ethnic composition are increasing in the tourism market of Australia. Gold Coast tourism industry is labour intensive compared to the airline industry that contains mostly capital equipment. Labour intensiveness of industry is determined by capital to labour ratio.
Future implications
The hallmark event like Bleach Festival is carrying out operations at the global scale as the economic growth rate at regions of China and India are 6.5%. The adjustment will examine the economic, political, socio-cultural and technological aspects. The local economic growth rate is expanding at 4.5% depicting the need for allocation. The rising employment level in the country depicts that people will visit the hotel more. The Festival will need to conduct a thorough analysis of the target market and formulate core pricing strategy. Matching resources according to the threats and opportunities are important for the Bleach Festival in order to attain long-term viability. It focuses on enhancing the functions at organizational, management and operational levels. Operations at the global level will need an expansion of property and equipment thus depicting the need for readjustment of resources. Gold Coast tourism industry is prone to sudden weather changes, natural calamities, and floods as happened in past. Certain tourism destinations nearby the water reserves are under the risk of floods. Likewise, the government is tightening environmental laws in order to maintain sustainable tourism.
Conclusion
Bleach Festival is a popular hallmark event linked to the tourism development of the Gold Coast, Australia. The festival attracted a larger crowd by setting a platform where tourists engaged with the community. The purpose of integrating such activities is to attain a competitive advantage in the global tourism markets. The Festival has contributed to the promotion of tourism sustainability in Gold Coast. It provides adequate opportunities to the local artists for engaging with the foreigners. Such activities contribute to income generation and recognition. Bleach Festival has established a positive cultural image by offering different tourist activities including sporting surf, arts, entertainment, outdoor film and live music.
The tourism activity has a direct link with the economy because it is important to source for collection of revenue. It has a significant role in the country's tourism and hospitality that is attracting the world's travellers to act as employment booster. The Bleach Festival is generating $5 billion in revenue each year that is contributing to the tourism of Gold Coast. The facts depict that this allows the state to generate $800 million from the hallmark event. The event has thus contributed to the overall improvement of the tourism at Gold Coast.
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY Arts. 2015. Culture Counts – Bleach* Festival. Retrieved 2019 йил 29-04 from http://artsengage.initiatives.qld.gov.au/aq-blog/659-2015/may/5373-culture-counts-bleach-festival
Frost, W. 2012. Events and Tourism. In S. P. Connell, Handbook of Events Management. London and New York: Routledge.
Gold. 2018. Bleach* Festival - Home Visit Australia. Retrieved 2019 йил 30-04 from http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/bleach-home-visit-australia-43967.html
Mackellar, J. 2014. Event Audiences and Expectations. Routledge.
TEQ. 2019. Bleach Festival set to attract the largest crowd ever. Retrieved 2019 йил 20-March from https://teq.queensland.com/news-and-media/latest-news/bleach-festival-set-to-attract-largest-crowd-ever
YouTube. 2015. Bleach* Festival 2015 Launch. Retrieved 04 29, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QItAsKMurZI
