Her appointment forms part of a Wine Tourism Strategy which promotes collaboration among the various stakeholders operating in the wine and tourism sectors, government and the private sector. The wine industry’s strategic framework, known as WISE, has identified wine tourism as a key priority to grow the sector.
“The Wine Tourism Strategy aims to bring the wine and tourism sectors together to attract a larger share of international and domestic travelers who are keen to explore beyond the boundaries of well-known tourist attractions by offering them unique cultural, culinary and outdoor experiences,” says Christo Conradie, manager wine cellars/agricultural economy and wine tourism at VinPro .
Marisah is an experienced tourism marketer and researcher with a background in communication, media and trade relations, digital account management and sales. Her most recent role in research at Cape Town Tourism has strengthened her strategic and analytical skills.
“I am excited about this fantastic product I will be working with, our winelands, as well as the excellent team at VinPro,” says Marisah. “I look forward to working with our regions towards transforming the wine tourism strategy into an action plan and persuading more local and overseas visitors to explore our wine routes and come back time and time again.”
Marisah has studied at Stellenbosch University where she completed a module towards her Master’s Degree in Geography of Tourism (cum laude). She has also completed her Bachelor of Technology, B-Tech Tourism Management (cum laude) at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). In 2014 she was awarded Cape Town Tourism’s Most significant contribution to Strategic Leadership award and in 2016 she was selected as jury member for the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Awards for Excellence and Innovation in the Tourism: Research & Technology Category.
Marisah is very much aware of the complexities of marketing a region, because of the amount of products, experiences and role players one needs to ally.
“Each region has a strong sense of place and community that intertwines with the landscape, history and culture of their town or city. It is a great responsibility to find a visitor who explores the destination respectfully. It is, however, precisely this complexity of destination marketing that I lost my heart on a long time ago.”