MINISTER HANEKOM BACKS SA WINE TOURISM STRATEGY'S "ENORMOUS POTENTIAL"   An exciting year lies ahead as South Africa's wine industry looks to adopt a more collaborative approach to the promotion of the country's unique wine tourism offering.

A new national wine tourism strategy is a step closer to being realised after the Business of Food and Wine Tourism Conference, which was recently held at Spier Wine Estate in Stellenbosch.

The Minister of Tourism, Derek Hanekom, has come out in support of the plan, saying the development of a wine tourism strategy will see the "industry unite behind a common vision, brand and aligned plan to take wine tourism forward".

"We look forward to working with the industry to help realise the enormous potential wine tourism has in contributing to our country’s overall tourism growth.” 

Visiting the winelands is listed as the second most popular experience by visitors on South African Tourism’s website, making alignment with the national tourism strategy and South African Tourism’s marketing plans and platforms a key priority.

"Our immediate priorities are to get buy-in from role players and finalise the implementation plan with input from and alignment with government,” says Destinate’s Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, who was commissioned to develop an industry-led wine tourism plan, as part of the Wine Industry Strategic Exercise, an initiative set to promote a robust, adaptable and competitive industry.

VinPro, the organisation that represents South African wine cellars and wine grape producers, has provided funding to conclude the strategy and implementation plan and enable a number of interventions within the next 12 months.

On the agenda is a wine tourism marketing kit to train the trade and hospitality industry as well as the establishment of a neutral wine tourism digital marketing platform to showcase all the wine regions and routes in South Africa, including the Northern Cape and the Garden Route.