Wednesday 2^nd November 2016.

As I write, the world’s first Wine and Food Tourism Conference has just come to a close in Stellenbosch, South Africa. What better place could there be to hold what is rapidly becoming an important and lucrative aspect of the wine trade than in the heart of the Cape winelands?

South Africa has, after all, been identified along with Napa Valley in California as the wine region with the most potential for the wine and food tourism. In Napa, two hours’ drive north of San Francisco, 3,3 million visitors spent $1,63 billion in the local economy in 2014. Currently the South African wine industry, according to figures published by the wine and food tourism conference, is the source of 289,000 jobs and contributes R6 billion annually to the economy. The ambitious intention is to reach R15 billion by 2025 but for this challenging goal to be realised support at all levels, from the government to local enterprise, will be crucial. Tourism Australia have shown what can be achieved: encouragingly, they have seen a growth of 25% in food and wine spend since the initiative was launched at the end of 2013.

To judge from the successful experiences already […]