The 2023 Wine Tourism Conference will take place at Lanzerac, Stellenbosch, on May 17, with the theme ‘Brands, brand building and brand distinction’.
Margi Biggs, convenor of the annual event, now in its seventh year, has arranged a list of international and local marketing, branding and tourism experts and innovators as speakers for the event.
Briggs revealed that South African local wine tourism was doing well and was approaching recovery to 2019 levels, but remains cautious due to the uncertain global economic outlook.
“If we are to continue to attract long-haul international visitors as well as those closer to home, including domestically, we are going to have to be that much smarter, nimbler, and more compelling in our offerings and the way we deliver them,” Briggs said.
Briggs believes the conference provides a good platform for wineries to think of new innovative ways to advance their brand perceptions.
“Prominent wine commentator Michael Fridjhon highlighted last year how useful attendance at the conference can be for winery CEOs and managers. As he stressed, now, more than ever, we must find convincing new ways to take our wineries to customers. We believe delegates will come away inspired and enthused by what they learn this year,” Briggs added.
Speakers
The keynote address on brand building and brand distinction will be delivered by Pepe Marais, Co-founder and Group Chief Creative Officer of Joe Public United, one of the country’s foremost branding and communication agencies.
A leadership and self-development mentor, Marais is also the author of Growing Greatness: A Journey Towards Personal and Business Mastery.
Peter McAtamney, who heads Wine Business Solutions (Australia), global specialists in wine market research, wine education and direct to consumer (DTC) wine business, will also to take the podium as one of the speakers.
McAtamney actively works in the South African, Australian, New Zealand and Spanish markets.
Another major drawcard will be Australian wine tourism expert, Robin Shaw. Founder of the celebrated consultancy Wine Tourism Australia, she is a popular speaker on the global wine tourism circuit and the brains behind Wine Australia’s newest Growing Wine Tourism programme.
Shaw works with a range of wine and tourism bodies, not only in Australia but globally, and has even consulted to VinPro – a non-profit company that represents close to 2 600 South African wine producers, cellars and industry stakeholders.
Mike Ratcliffe, CEO of the Stellenbosch Wine Route, who has been a leading player in re-establishing the pre-eminence of Stellenbosch as a centre of excellence, will be addressing ways in which to build collective brand identities.
He was a major contributor to the success of Warwick Wines and more recently, Vilafonté, established as the first South African/US joint wine venture.
The day-long event will feature several other prominent tourism and branding specialists. They include Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa; Katlego Flocart Ditlhokwe, founder of brand strategist agency The Hyphen; Chantel Botha, MD of Brandlove Training, who will discuss cultivating brand warriors; and Hardy McQueen, Executive Producer of ‘The CyberCellar Wineshow’, who will be talking about diversity and inclusion of audiences.
While Paul Siguqa, CEO of Klein Goederust in Franschhoek, will be looking at building a new South African brand; DTC futurist Andrew Douglas will be moderating a discussion on rebuilding established brands. Panellists to appear will be wine personalities Hein Koegelenberg, Kevin Arnold and Pieter Cronjé.
A panel discussion on how eco-conservation can impact brand building will be moderated by André Morgenthal, Project Manager of the Old Vine Project.
Panellists will include Shelly Fuller of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) South Africa, Jeremy Borg of Painted Wolf Wines and Kathryn Cilliers of Spier.
Also in attendance is Wesgro, who will open the conference. Followed by Delta Air Lines, who will talk about changing trends in air travel.
