Bendigo Tourism Board chair Finn Vedelsby has one goal - to make Bendigo a more liveable city and a wonderful place to visit.
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The city's designation as a City of Gastronomy in late 2019 goes a long way to achieving that.
The Bendigo Tourism Board works in concert with the City of Greater Bendigo to grow tourism in the region and offered a helping hand during the city's bid process.
"We supported the bid with our expertise and through discussions.
"It's all about enhancing and polishing our visitor experiences," Mr Vedelsby said.
A major goal of the Bendigo Tourism Board's five year strategic plan was to get Bendigo on the world map, and a UNESCO City of Gastronomy title helps.
"We are very well regarded in international gastronomy centres.
"With QantasLink to Sydney, we are not only going to bring in domestic tourism, but international tourism as well," Mr Vedelsby.
His Chancery Lane institution, The Dispensary, like the entire hospitality sector in the region, expects to share in the spoils of the city's latest accolade.
"Getting our message out there about what gastronomy really means is going to be the challenge for producers and providers of the visitor experience.
"Living up to this fantastic designation for producers, local restaurants and accommodation providers is the hard part," Mr Vedelsby said.
Next month's Bendigo NEXT conference, to be held at the Capital Theatre, will focus on how local businesses can gain an edge in the tourism industry.
"There is a focus on small businesses growing and leveraging this wonderful opportunity, which is the designation," Mr Vedelsby said.
The City of Gastronomy is about more than restaurants though, Mr Vedelsby said.
"It is a reflection of Bendigo and the greater Bendigo region.
"It is about produce, our wine regions and our farms.
"It is a community thing, outside the borders of just Bendigo," Mr Vedelsby said.
The Bendigo Tourism Board serves as a point of reference for the entire tourism sector.
It features representatives from accommodation, ecotourism, sports and leisure, caravanning and camping, hospitality sector, among others.
"It is about heritage as well and we have representatives from the heritage industry in Bendigo and work in closely with the arts and culture sectors," Mr Vedelsby.
A Tourism Research Australia dataset released in 2019 revealed that the Bendigo Loddon region ranked in Australia's top 50 areas for visitor numbers, number of nights stayed and money sent.
