Cape Town, as a gateway city to the Cape Winelands, is expected to attract a record number of visitors this year following the announcement in The Guardian and New York Times that the city is the world’s top holiday destination for 2014. The multitude of experiences on offer in the city and the surrounding Winelands contribute to the city’s popularity. These experiences are seamlessly encapsulated in the just released ninth edition of the Wine Tourism Handbook, which for the first time is available as a free download from the website.
This year’s publication has expanded to include independently rated reviews of over 100 wine farm restaurants as well as showcasing artisanal producers throughout the region. The annually updated maps with full contact details of all wine farms across 26 different wine routes that are open to the public along with opening hours is one of the most popular features of the book. Along with featured wine farms and experiences, there is an emphasis on introducing ‘The Little Guys’ – boutique wineries making top-class wines and well worth a visit. The Winelands of South Africa provide an all-encompassing wine tourism experience that includes cellar door tastings, on-farm restaurants and delis, accommodation options, outdoor adventure and indulgent spa treatments. This multitude of experiences is promoted under Wine Tourism South Africa’s ‘in the glass, on the plate, around the table, in the bed, for the planet’ marketing campaign.
“The enduring popularity of the Wine Tourism Handbook as an indispensable guide to what is on offer in South Africa’s Winelands highlights the growth in this sector, along with the increased consumer interest in wine tourism experiences,” says Monika Elias, publisher of the Wine Tourism Handbook. As part of Wine Tourism South Africa’s marketing strategy to promote South Africa’s wine tourism offering, visitors to the website: www.winetourismsouthafrica.co.za can download digital PDF version of the book for free.
The Wine Tourism Handbook is the print component of an extensive Wine Tourism South Africa marketing platform, which includes the annual and extremely popular Klink Awards – the first online, consumer-driven wine tourism awards in South Africa and one of the only awards of this kind in the world. The 2013 competition attracted just under 15 000 votes through Facebook, Twitter and email. The winners of Klink 2013 – across a variety of categories – are showcased in the 2014 Wine Tourism Handbook.
The Wine Tourism Handbook is available in hard copy from selected bookstores including Exclusive Books and Wordsworth, selected wine shops, tour operators, guesthouses and hotels, restaurants and wine farms or can be downloaded as an e-book on the Wine Tourism South Africa website: www.winetourismsouthafrica.co.za.
