Garden tourism guru Richard Benfield comes to Western Australia

According to Dr Richard Benfield from the Central Connecticut State University in the USA more people visit gardens in the USA than go to Disneyland and Disneyworld combined. Although garden tourism is one of the fastest growing tourism activities it is often not understood and poorly promoted.

Richard is the author of the book “Garden Tourism”, the only book that looks at this tourism sector. As well as lecturing on garden tourism, he has travelled the world looking at this tourism sector and has spoken to audiences on how to develop the industry.

Research indicates that a garden tourist is also a tourist interested in food, heritage and the culture of an area. Western Australia has an ideal opportunity to maximise the tourism opportunities around gardens and our unique flora.

To help us on the journey John Stanley Associates has invited Richard Benfield to visit Western Australia (WA) and present three workshops across the State. This will be Richard’s first time to WA and he will present workshops in Geraldton, on Monday 7th July, Kings Park on Tuesday 8th July, and Nannup on Thursday 10th July.

The workshops will focus on how garden tourism can help the local economy, what the visitor is looking for, how to build garden tourism in the community, lessons from overseas and how we can improve the sector in WA.

This is an opportunity for all stakeholders who are interested in developing garden tourism in the State to gather at a workshop to explore the potential in Western Australia.

If you are interested in being part of one of these workshops contact John Stanley, john@johnstanley.com.au