The Wine & Food Tourism Conference, now in its fourth year, is South Africa’s first-ever Cape Winelands conference that features local and international speakers and focuses on the sharing of insights and trends, to ultimately build knowledge and skills, and grow the wine and food tourism industry in the country. The 2019 edition of the conference, featuring headline speaker Dion Chang, will take place on 18 September at Spier Wine Farm near Stellenbosch. This year’s theme is “The Future of Wine & Food Tourism”.
The annual conference is convened by wine and gourmet tourism specialist, Margi Biggs, who brings to the project her exceptional combination of energy, flair and innovation in seeking to make South African wine and food experiences more relevant, more appealing, targeted and more competitive.
She says: “We have so much in our favour in South Africa. We have physical beauty, we have critically acclaimed wines that have captured the attention of leading tastemakers. Our restaurants and gastronomy are renowned. Once again, we featured on the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2018. Our ingredients are fresh, traceable and delicious. Our food markets routinely star on social media. We are globally known for our friendly hospitality. These are all massive drawcards.”
“Fortunately, tourism in the Western Cape is the region’s fastest-growing sector, employing over 200 000 people and generating R17 billion for the economy each year. We believe the potential is there to grow the number of jobs to 300 000.”
With this in mind, Biggs has recently launched the Wine & Food Tourism Awards that aims to recognise those individuals and teams who have made exceptional contributions to the development and promotion of the South African wine and food tourism industry.
Jean-Pierre Rossouw is serving as the awards programme chairperson, overseeing the judging panel. The judging categories are Innovation, Service Excellence and The Authentic South African Experience. Each category is judged by three industry experts. There will be a maximum of three honourees in each category.
The honourees will be announced at the Wine & Food Tourism Conference.
Nominations can be submitted via the website. Please visit www.wineandfood.co.za for more information.
