KEY stakeholders in wine and tourism are uniting to present the country’s first specialist wine tourism exhibition, Vindaba, next year.
With the backing of national and provincial government, Vindaba will be showcasing the best in South African wine-related tourism when it is held in Cape Town in September 2012, targeting the local and international travel trade, as well as wine, travel and lifestyle media.
Vindaba, which marks a new spirit of collaboration amongst tourism bodies, is intended as a launching pad to position South Africa on the world map of wine tourism.
Forming part of a long-term strategy to boost wine tourism, the initiative represents a partnership between Wines of South Africa (WOSA) and SA Tourism, as well as the Wine Routes, Cape Town Tourism, Cape Town Routes Unlimited and the Department of Finance, Tourism and Economic Development of the Western Cape.
The organisers plan to turn Vindaba into a world-class event that will assume the status of a leading wine exhibition amongst the international wine and travel fraternities.
It will also offer specialist seminars, focus on gastro-tourism and provide tailor-made wine tours for the international and domestic travel business fraternity.
It will be staged simultaneously with Cape Wine 2012 at the Cape Town Convention Centre.
Cape Wine, hosted biennially by WOSA, exhibits a wide spectrum of South Africa’s wines and wine styles to the international wine trade. It also attracts wine, travel and lifestyle media.
Cape Wine is considered the most successful international wine trade show in the Southern Hemisphere, and has been held every alternate year since 2000, with the exception of last year, with South Africa hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Next year’s Cape Wine will be the first in four years and will thus provide an important opportunity for the industry to update its markets on new developments. In another world first, both events will be staged as eco-friendly exhibitions by marketing Vindaba as a “green” initiative.
