Gourmet Escape ticketing draws fire
Tourism WA has rejected suggestions not enough major Gourmet Escape ticket releases have been made available to the average punter.
Gourmet Escape event director Naomi Wilson declined to answer specifics about ticketing for high-end events following rumours only a small number of tickets were available once sponsors, clients, and Government and trade representatives were accommodated.
However, Ms Wilson said only about 5 per cent of tickets were held for event partners.
“We are thrilled with the response to (event) ticket sales so far,” she said.
“To meet visitor demand for this year’s festival we created more events and more choice across the three-day festival, which has provided a greater range of price points and the largest number of tickets available to the general public to date.
“Tickets to all events are sold on a first come, first serve basis through Ticketek.
"There was also no presale available this year, but venue capacities remain strictly limited.”
Gourmand and former Tasting Australia director Ian Parmenter said there were community concerns that most tickets were for the corporate and political sector, while the weekend Gourmet Village – for which attendance was buoyed by hundreds of free tickets – was designed to keep the public happy.
“All the highly-priced ticketed events you couldn’t get into because they’d been pre-sold or they just weren’t available, ” he said.
“I think it was corporates. I don’t really think the public got a look in.”
Mr Parmenter said industry figures told him some high-end event tickets were not available 10 minutes after going on sale, which he didn’t believe was popularity alone.
The Times understands parent company Brand Events’ $7.5 million funding arrangement with the WA Government is under review, but will not involve tenders.
TWA events director Gwyn Dolphin said Gourmet Escape tickets sold out quickly when there was limited capacity or events were popular.
“It’s no different to a concert by a popular artist that sells out in minutes, as we often see. Demand exceeds supply, ” he said.
“Claims of tickets to events not being available at all, or only a ‘small percentage’ going on sale are not correct.”
Mr Dolphin said some tickets were reserved for international tourists in package deals, while others were for the media and sponsors “as is the case in every financially-supported event”.
Although the contract with Brand Events was audited, TWA said the information was commercial in confidence and declined to provide copies to the Times without a Freedom of Information application.
Mr Parmenter said the audit materials should be readily available to the public as he did not believe tickets were widely available.
Mr Dolphin said ticket allocations were “carefully balanced” as part of the goal to drive awareness of Margaret River.
Ms Wilson said third party researchshowed more than $10 million was spent in the region during last year’s escape, which involved 39,000 visitors in total.
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