Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold established Destinate, a destination management and strategic marketing agency, in 2013 after ten years as the award-winning CEO of Cape Town Tourism. Destinate develops and helps implement strategy, builds brands, markets destinations and connects people with great brands and destinations (often over good food and wine).

Mariette is in demand internationally as a tourism and marketing strategist, facilitator and speaker on tourism, destination management, wine tourism and innovation in marketing.

Roberta Garibaldi is university professor. She holds different roles at international and national level: she is member of the Board of directors of the World Food Travel Association, of Board of advisor of the World Gastronomy Institute, of the Board of Italian Society Tourism Science (SISTUR). She is the author of the “Report on Gastronomy Tourism in Italy” and president of the Italian Association of Gastronomy Tourism. She deals with researches and applied projects for destinations and operators working in the field of gastronomy tourism.

Graduated in Political Science and Public Administration from Universidad Nacional de Cuyo of Mendoza – Argentina, María Lorena has also had a parallel career in the wine & hospitality business since her early years. She completed her wine education with the INTA Tasting and Sensorial Analysis Course and later the WSET II.  She also took part of the Program “Formación de Líderes para el Desarrollo Local” from the IAE (Instituto Argentino de la Empresa, of Universidad Austral).

In 2001 she worked for Park Hyatt Mendoza in restaurant and events, and in 2005 she joined Bodegas Salentein from the well-known Dutch entrepreneur Mijndert Pon. She developed the wine tourism first and then led the renewal of Posada Salentein, one of the first winery hotels in Argentina. She then was appointed Customer Relations Manager developing incentive programs, hospitality and educational experiences for winery clients from all over the world. Being a professional always committed to community and sustainability she also proposed and carried out several CSR projects and led the Uco Valley node of the NGO VALOS, for the promotion of CSR, organization of which she became board member in 2011 and President between 2016 and 2020.
In 2015 Lorena joined Chandon (Argentina) Winery as Site Events and Wine Communication Manager for the three wineries of the LVMH group in Mendoza: Bodegas Chandon, Bodega Terrazas de los Andes and Cheval des Andes.

Catherine began her career in Bordeaux, working for the French local government as consultant to small and medium business in the development of their export markets and Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a public body working to support the development of firms in all their activities.

She launched the Great Wine Capitals Global Network and is in charge of managing the Network as its managing director. One of the main focus of the GWC is wine tourism, and the major program, the Best Of Wine Tourism international annual contest.
For the last twenty years, she has worked with great conviction and energy to develop wine tourism in Bordeaux vineyards and to promote Bordeaux destination on key foreign markets, including towards international companies wishing to invest in the area.

She is also involved in the cruise sector, developing “Cruise Bordeaux” with local operators and promoting Bordeaux to the cruise industry. Catherine is Bordeaux’s representative in the Délice network, an international network of cities on food and gastronomy.

Irene Gimeno is a journalist, Head of Communications of Enoturismo Chile, a national project which works for the development of wine tourism in Chile, seeking to support attractive, innovative, competitive and sustainable activities. We work together with our board of public and private directors to improve the quality of customer service and in order to provide tools for the industry, as well as networking and data collection for better sectoral diagnose.

Graduated in Political Science from UNED and Postgraduate in International Relations and Development Cooperation from OEI, Master in Economic Affairs of UE. In her professional life, she has worked as a consultant in various fields specializing in the last ten years in the management of family wineries and in the planning, development and marketing of wine tourism models in Spain wine regions.

She is currently the Director of Makers The Experience Collection, within the World Shopping Tourism Network endorsed by the UNWTO, a program that seeks to create a Premium Experience Club in the hands of producers of wine, coffee, cocoa, spirits, tea, etc. ., on an international level.

She is the founder and coordinator of Wine Tourism International Think Tank international wine tourism experts group of different countries created during the Covid to look for global solutions for the sector.

She is the corporate director of Wine Tourism of the González Byass group. She manages Wine Tourism in the group's wineries, which are present in the main Spanish D.O.'s: Beronia (La Rioja), Vilarnau (Penedés), Finca Constancia (Toledo), Viñas del Vero (Somontano), Pazo de Lusco (Rias Baixas), Tío Pepe (Jerez), and also in Bodegas Pedro Domecq (Baja California, Mexico) and Veramonte y Neyen (Chile). Born in Jerez, she studied Marketing and Advertising in Madrid, and worked for 4 years in the fashion world, as purchasing manager and national expansion manager of N.M. American Fashion of the Don Algodón Group. She joined González Byass in 1996.

Sandra Carvão is Chief of Tourism Market Intelligence and Competitiveness at the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) since June 2018. Before that, she was Chief of Communications and Publications for 8 years until May 2018 where she was responsible for UNWTO’s strategic positioning.

Prior to this post, Sandra was Deputy Chief at UNWTO’s Market Trends, Competitiveness and Trade in Tourism Services Department between 2007 and 2010. During this period, Sandra coordinated the Tourism Resilience Committee created by UNWTO to address the impacts of the global economic crisis 2008-2009 on tourism. Prior to joining UNWTO in 2003, Sandra held a position as market manager in the Portuguese National Tourist Office in Lisbon. Sandra has a degree in International Relations, Economics Branch, by the Instituto de Ciências Sociais e Políticas/Universidade Técnica de Lisboa and a postgraduade degree in Marketing by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Opening Remarks

• Pau Roca, Director General of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV)
• Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

Innovating in wine tourism in the context of COVID-19

Moderator: Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold, Destinate, South Africa

Speakers:

• The impact of COVID-19 on Wine Tourism by Roberta Garibaldi, Associazione Italiana Turismo Enogastronomico, Italy
• The Reinvention of Oeno-Gastronomy in Wineries during and post COVID-19 by Lorena Cepparo, Chandon Argentina
• Organizing and Managing Outdoor Experiences by Catherine Leparmentier Dayot, Great Wine Capitals Global Network, France
• New Strategies of Wine Tourism Destination by Irene Gimeno, Enoturismo Chile
• New Reality, New Wine Tourism?
  • Zaida Semprun, World Shopping Tourism Network MAKERS PROGRAM, Spain Makers
  • Beatriz Vergara , Directora de Enoturismo de Gonzalez Byass, Spain

Panel debate and Q&A

Closing Remarks

World Tourism Day: Wine Tourism, a Tool for Rural Development by Sandra Carvao, Chief, Tourism Market Intelligence and Competitiveness, UNWTO