Africa Travel Week 2015 kicked off in the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Monday, and runs for the full week, attracting about 5000 delegates from around the world. The Africa Travel Week consists of three events.
On Monday International Luxury Travel Week commenced, 300 delegates welcomed to Cape Town and the Western Cape by provincial Minister of Tourism Alan Winde. He informed delegate that luxury travel is a growth Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Globally spirit sales barely grew in 2013, after a growth of 6,5% between 2007 – 2011. Vodka is the largest selling spirit category, at 496 million cases. Whisky/whiskey sales grew the fastest, and stand at 361 million cases. Rum sales were 146 million, a decrease on the year prior. Whilst the largest market for spirits is Asia, at 1,9 billion cases, growth was minimal.
* More than 70 World Design Capital 2014 projects are on display in the Civic Centre as the project reaches its halfway mark, reports the Cape Times. The projects on display include the MyCiTi Bus, Green Point Urban Park, and the Buitengracht Pedestrian Bridge. There is no entrance fee to view the display, which runs until the end of this year.
* Millennials will be the travelers of the future, being the biggest tourism spenders in the next 5 – 10 years, and already Continue reading →
I was so impressed with the talks in the Event programme of World Travel Market Africa on Friday that I returned yesterday to the Cape Town International Convention Centre to listen to some more. It was a much more disappointing and unprofessional experience than on Friday.
It was a shame that the afternoon session was very quiet for all at the exhibition, having to compete with the Stormers playing Highlanders. It did make finding parking outside the Convention Centre easy though. In between two talks I went into the Media Centre, and was horrified at how rude the security person was, questioning my presence there, after I had used it the day before as well without question, annoying too as I had blogged about the first day yesterday! It is disappointing that the quality of the food at the Convention Centre, which had improved greatly after the arrival of Chef Warwick Thomas almost a year ago, was uninspiring in the Media Centre, with some pieces of feta, lots of olives, cherry tomatoes, green leaves, and cucumber slices (the day before they came with mini pita bread), baby potatoes and slices of roast beef with stir fry vegetables (the day before much better rice and tender chicken breasts), and fruit and a mini milktart, which leaked all its content the minute one used the spoon (compared to the excellent fruit tarts and 
chocolate mousse served the day before). At 15h00 the content of the small bar fridge, consisting of cold drinks and water, had been cleared out, and they were not refilling it for the next three hours until closing time, because the budget limit for drinks had been reached! The day before a Convention Centre staff member announced that no more drinks could be had by the writers using the Centre, despite the fridge still being three quarters full! This all happened despite Natalia Thomson, the PR consultant for the exhibition being in the Media Centre, but she did nothing about the drinks shortage, despite the feedback to her. Continue reading →
On Monday evening I rubbed shoulders with Mike Veseth, a wine economist from the USA he said, and keynote speaker at the Nederburg Auction yesterday. We were sharing a table at the Wines of South Africa (WOSA) Green Tie Event to celebrate the opening of CapeWine 2012. His address to the elite of the wine industry at the Nederburg Wine Auction must have made WOSA proud of its ‘Cape Wine Braai Masters‘ book, regularly slated by Neil Pendock, in recommending to the South African wine industry to ‘make every day National Braai Day – they will toast your success with your own wonderful wine’, and so win the ‘Wine Wars‘ in the USA.
Veseth based his talk on the book he published last year, entitled ‘Wine Wars’, and reflected on how to apply its principles to the marketing of South African wines in the USA. ‘Terroirism’, according to Veseth, or ‘somewhereness’, creating a link to time and place, is the key to a successful wine industry, and selling wine in the USA.
Veseth showered praise on South African wines, yet said that the ‘Wine War’ for our local wines will not be an easy one in the USA, calling for strategy and tactics, and some luck, as one goes into the marketing battle, given that the USA market is ‘crowded, intensely competitive, and structurally difficult to penetrate’, in part due to globalisation.
To market South African wine successfully in the USA the wine brands need to connect personally with wine influencers. Marketing the wines as ‘South African‘ will not be successful. Each varietal must be marketed against others in the category. Wine labels should be the arsenal of the wine marketer, and not country of origin. Pushing a ‘signature varietal‘ like Pinotage or Chenin Blanc for the country is like a ‘one note samba’, Veseth said.
New well-to-do wine American drinkers, which Veseth calls ‘Millennials’, have an open book on South African wines, and ‘are not just buying a wine, they are building an identity’. Their brand purchases are lifestyle related. To reach them, a marketing communication mix of story-telling, social media, 
and ‘first person wine experiences’ by the wine farms and their American distributors, with WOSA ‘shaping perceptions’, is recommended. It is in this context that Veseth recommended the Braai as a cultural marketing weapon, reflecting our country’s culture, and helping to create the connectedness to the consumer. The Braai is part of South Africa’s food culture, but also is a reflection of South African’s ‘generosity and hospitality’, a braai invitation ‘opening your heart and your hearth to them’. An ‘Afrocentric winelands braai’, says Veseth, ‘can be a gateway to a fuller appreciation of South African culture and lifestyle and to the diverse wines that have evolved along with it’!
Making every day National Braai Day is the way to win the Wine Wars in the USA, Veseth concluded!
POSTSCRIPT 2/10: At the recent Chenin Blanc Association ‘Cape Chenin Unveiled’ seminar, Ken Forrester asked Allan Mullins of Woolworths why the retailer’s 8-page Heritage Day Sunday Times ‘Everyday is Braai Day at Woolies’ insert did not contain a single bottle of wine. Mr Mullins was very diplomatic in his reply, saying that he would have a word with his Marketing department. He did not appear to be happy with this state of affairs.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage