Tourism based
on South Africa’s wine industry has the potential to more than double in size
in the next nine years as the declining value of the rand makes the country
increasingly attractive to visitors, according to an organization representing
producers.
The market
could grow to 15 billion rand ($930 million) in 2025 from 6 billion rand now,
said Rico Basson, managing director of Vinpro, which has 3,600 wine producers and cellars
as members. It’s among local groups supporting the Wine Industry Strategic
Exercise, or WISE, to develop the economic potential of wine tourism in South
Africa, which is growing by 7 percent a year, according to Basson.
The market
for international visitors “is a focus area which could easily double and grow
exponentially, especially with the weak rand,” Basson said by phone from Paarl
near Cape Town. The currency has slumped 28 percent against the dollar in the
past 12 months.
The world’s
seventh-largest producer, South Africa has almost 100,000 hectares (247,000
acres) of vineyards, mostly in the Western Cape province. The country’s first
wine was produced in 1659, according to industry group Wines of South Africa,
and the industry now employs about 300,000 people.
Among the
goals of WISE is to expand wine tourism from the key markets of the U.S., China
and countries in the rest of Africa, Basson said.
Source: BloombergBusiness By Tshepiso Mokhema
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