Traditional source markets such as the UK, the US, Germany and the Netherlands are the top supporters of South Africa’s wine tourism.

This is according to new in-depth research into the country’s multibillion-rand wine industry that has given wineries unprecedented insights into tourism visitor trends.

The South African Wine Tourism Visitor Research Report 2022 is the result of a collaboration between industry association Vinpro (which represents close to 2 600 stakeholders), and Vintelligence, a specialised wine industry business intelligence solutions supplier.

“The aim of the research study was to develop and implement a method and tool to collect, analyse and interpret information about visitors to our wine farms, in order to assist wineries in better understanding visitors’ needs and to apply that understanding in developing our wine tourism industry,” said Vinpro Wine Tourism Manager, Marisah Nieuwoudt.

“As we kick off International Tourism Month in September, this was the ideal time to release wine tourism visitor insights that will help South African wine tourism destinations identify specific market segments and create marketing campaigns, products and experiences tailored to them.”

Key visitor insights

The report includes the results of Vintelligence’s Great Big Wine Survey, an online survey that saw more than 7 000 wine consumers answering more than 100 questions, which included a focus on wine route visitation, awareness and travel behaviour.

The report goes on to list the profiles of 709 wine tourists interviewed at wineries, focusing on demographics, travel motivation and wine engagement, and then zooms into three types of wine tourists – Curious, Wine Interested and Wine Lover – who exhibit different characteristics for marketers to focus on.

Key insights from the report included:

• People who attended wine tastings or food-and-wine pairings, or who visited a wine farm would in future more likely pay more for a bottle of wine and buy more bottles of wine per month.
• Most winery visitors interviewed were from the Western Cape and Gauteng, followed by KwaZulu Natal and the Eastern Cape. The international visitors mirrored South Africa’s traditional top tourism source markets, namely the United Kingdom, Germany, the US and the Netherlands.
• A large portion of visitors who indicated that they had children living with them visited wine farms as individuals or pairs without children. This could be due to a perceived lack of activities for children, or because they viewed a visit to a wine farm as a break in their normal routine.
• Visitors cited relaxation, the scenery and farm setting, and socialising with friends and family as the main reasons for visiting a wine farm, following the obvious wine tasting.
• Close to 15% of visitors interviewed were curious tourists (moderately interested in wine, but a winery is just another attraction to them); 61% were wine interested (high interest in wine, but not the sole purpose of their winery visit); and 24% were wine lovers (extremely interested in wines and winemaking; wineries may be the sole purpose of their visit to a region).

Powerful marketing resource

Elna von Schlicht, Executive Mayor of the Cape Winelands District Municipality, which is home to the majority of South Africa’s wineries, commended Vinpro and its partners for the initiatives to promote wine tourism and provide powerful marketing resources to wineries.

“CWDM applauds Vinpro and affiliated partners for their ongoing projects aimed at attracting not only visitors to the Cape Winelands but also those projects that promote our wines and wine tourism destinations to markets abroad,” said Von Schlicht.

She pointed out that the Western Cape’s tourism and investment agency, Wesgro, had confirmed that the Cape Winelands was the province’s most popular region for repeat domestic tourist visits. A total of 45% of domestic visitors were repeat visitors in July 2022, along with 27.8% of international visitors.

“These figures tell us that once people have visited the Cape Winelands, they return for more. We suspect this is not only due to the variety of high-quality, budget-friendly destinations and activities on offer, but mostly the incredible warmth of the people who serve our visitors.”

Click here to view the full report.

Vinpro has also created a Wine Tourism Toolkit – a free online resource with practical tips and tools available at www.toolkit.vinpro.co.za – to help wineries identify, understand and communicate with their target markets, while implementing the research findings in their wine businesses.