Hunter Valley Wine Country Tourism board of directors, management and staff have welcomed a new executive manager to lead the organisation through an exciting and challenging period in wine tourism in the region. Dean Gorddard has accepted the appointment to the highly-regarded wine tourism organisation. He comes into the role with more than 20 years tourism experience spanning the UK, Australian and New Zealand markets where he has managed large brand campaigns and implemented significant changes in the areas of marketing and business development.
Mr. Gorddard has a strong background in retail travel and tour operations that was developed during his early career in the UK and has spent the last 15 years working in destination marketing representing Bath, NSW and Canterbury.
There have been significant changes to the way in which local tourism associations operate and the shift towards the industry driving tourism strategy and marketing.
Hunter Valley Wine Country Tourism sees the appointment of Mr. Gorddard as an opportunity to reassess the structure and current operations and bring fresh ideas and solutions to the organisations challenges.
“As the peak wine tourism body for the Hunter Valley, our organisation will work closer with the industry to initiate and implement exciting, innovative and high impact marketing campaigns to grow the value of tourism to our area, provide stakeholders with a greater return on investment and to improve the visitor experience to Hunter Valley Wine Country,” he said.
“As funding sources from the industry, local and state governments come under increasing pressure, the current funding model for the business will be assessed and, if found to be unsustainable, the industry and our organisation will need to lead the move to a new plan for the future.”
He started full-time employment on Monday.
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