IWINETC 2015 La Champagne, France was great but don’t believe us read what attendees have said:
We are still on a “high” after attending IWINETC La Champagne in April – a high due to our experiences, not from all the marvelous champagne we drank!
The well-planned and implemented Conference is a testament to the hard work of all the organizers – from Anthony and team to the Champagne tourism leaders.
While cruise packages have been our main focus, this Conference has given us many resources to help us develop our niche – specialty cruising, especially river boats with pre- or post-land tours in wine country as well as land-based wine tours for both our FIT clients and our wine-focused groups. River boat cruising has grown tremendously in the last few years and wine-focused travel grows as travelers seek authentic experiences. Focusing on these areas of travel will help us achieve our business goals over the next several years.
We are currently working with tour operators in Europe and in South America whom we met at the Conference to develop land-based wine programs for our FIT clients and our wine groups. Plus our new resources from Conference make it possible to offer our clients the land-based wine adventures they want pre- or post-cruise with confidence.
The new contacts we made in the Champagne region are tremendous resources for assisting us in promoting Champagne – whether a day trip to the beautiful and historical city of Reims or an FIT or group for extended stays throughout the Champagne region.
Kudos and thank you to all who had a part in IWINETC La Champagne!
Carolyn and Jay Nemia
Vacation Specialists, CruiseOne
IWINETC 2015 in Champagne was a great moment. First of all by the powerful insights of world experts about new topics like interpretive planning and wine tourism strategies. It’s nice to see his own ideas shared by others professionals.
It was a wonderful opportunity to discuss with the speakers and the attendees. And the program of cellar visits, tastings and discoveries was utterly rewarding…
An approach of wine tourism strategy which isn’t international is the last thing we need… I will attend Barcelona 2016 !
André Deyrieux – Wine Tourism in France
The IWINETC 2015 was a great chance to learn a lot about the Champagne! We got a lot of ideas for travelling with groups to this beautiful area. The combination of Champagne, good food and culture is perfect! We got so much ideas what and how to do!
Birgit Herrmann, Power Travel
Surley we will work with the Champagne in the future. Also we are starting to work with Georgia now. We have the first groups!
I attended twice IWINETC (2014 in Georgia then in 2015 in Champagne) and I was always very satisfied by the quality of the participants, wether journalists, wine experts or tourism industry related buyers. The social networking aspect of this yearly event is unique and it is worth to develop succesfull contacts in the magical world of wine.
Guillaume de VAUDREY, COSMOPOLIS
Thanks a lot to Anthony and his team at Wine Pleasures along with Champagne Tourism Board Team for the hospitality at Champagne area for the 7th IWINETC edition.
I thoroughly enjoyed my stay, the special evenings that was organized. As a hotel and travel consultant I can assure you that all people from these two trades dream of such an experience which Wine Pleasures put up with Champagne Tourism Board Team . It was a great opportunity to gain knowledge of fine cuisine and Champagne and formulate exotic and memorable trips for my ‘wine drinking clients’ to this destination.
Wine Pleasures is only unique organisation for wine tourism which makes a delegate independent and exposes to new ideas- ’thinking out of the box’. It increases the practical knowledge of the product mix- Wine/food/accommodation/itinerary/experience/hospitality and smooth deliverance of the end product-wine tourism to end customers.
This approach has improved my business due to personal exposure and experience to these programmes. I have increased the data base of suppliers and this has benefited me. I am able to draw up itineraries which are special and different and far apart from the others.
It will always be a pleasure to continue the association with Wine Pleasures- IWINETC. Anthony is the driving force behind this organization.
Krishnaswamy Ajjampur R, Hospitality & Travel Consultant, INDIA
Good morning to you Anthony. I am finally back at my office desk after a month long stay in Europe and the U.K. where I was judging wines in 3 competitions. I would like to thank you for allowing me to attend the 2015 IWINETC Events in Reims this year. This new experience was completely enjoyable and has embedded in me the need to provide support to the Conference year on year. Kindly retain my details on your data base.
Yagas Naidoo, South Africa Miles for Style
It was great. I had a lot of B2Bs for our work in future. Then the speakers. They gave me good ideas for our next tours.
Mr. Philippe Harant gave me the idea to found a section of ITER VITIS in our region, the Unesco heritage Middle Rhine valley , my home country.
And of course the Champagner tastings. Where can you have the chance to taste so many different Champagners in such a short time! – accompaned with delicious food.
Wolfgang Volk, arttours GmbH
We have already planned a group tour to the Champagne in September 2015. Also we are planning Catalonia next year. So I hope the 8th IWINETC will be there and I can take part on it. I was most happy about having experienced. IWINETC 2015 and all the good contacts made will certainly be the start of an new business for the Champagne region.
With kind regards from Denmark
Klaus Prüfer, Gourmet-rejser.dk
I have been impressed by the personal care put from the planning to the delivery of the event itself. Overall, I am satisfied with the way it was conducted. I feel I have had my chance to meet like-minded wine enthusiasts from varied horizons and above all, I met a bunch of open-minded daring travel planners which I hope to work with to organize customized trips to Thailand and Laos. The format of the IWINETC enables lots of networking and business moments, from coffee breaks, luncheons, workshops, tastings, social evening gatherings to other seminar attendances. IWINETC is still a “small” event in size if compared to other themed travel shows and it is precisely a strength as it gathers fine people from the wine tourism industry which would be impossible to reach otherwise. You get to bump in the people several times and this adds to the personal level one wants to create, unlike other bigger events that are more in a rush and impersonal. To conclude, I’d say that IWINETC is a cost effective way to build your presence and get a visibility in a limited time frame. If you’re active on the spot and “on the ball’ in social media.
Laurent GRANIER, Laos Mood Travel, Vientiane – Lao PDR.
I am pleased to reply on behalf of Living Roots team, as we were 3 persons from one company. Personally for me it was 4th participation in a conference. In general everything was fine, more of presentations were very appealing, we met interesting people. Thank you for arranging everything. As for the future, I think it would be worth to add new elements to conference, otherwise repeated participants will discontinue participation. It’s important to make special discounts for those participants who is constant participant of the conference. In common appreciated conference in France and wish to be in Barcelona next year.
Wish a lot of success to IWINETC.
Ia Tabagari, Living Roots, Georgia
Apart from my daily postings on facebook (which incidentally I could not figure out how to put on the IWINETC page….), after I returned home, I sent out an e-blast to all my clients telling them about the fabulous conference and educational trip in this amazing region of La Champagne.
I also met fantastic resources for wine tours to so many destinations at the workshop and through networking after hours and during our Fam trip.
Since then as a direct result of my communications to my clients and facebook friends, I have booked two luxury independent French wine tour itineraries, am working on a day trip to La Champagne for a group I already have booked on a Wine Cruise along the Seine, and am working on a group itinerary for Chile and Argentina. All thanks to the experience gained and connections made at IWINETC 2015!–
Trisha Iannazzi, CTC,MCC,DS, IANNAZZI ENTERPRISES
As a seminar presenter, the most compelling aspect of IWINETC was the interaction with the professionals in the audience. Even though I was asked to deliver a report on the US Tasting Room experience, I was equally interested to learn from those attending – not only their reactions to the survey, but their own experiences across international markets. Wine Tourism is a broad, diverse category, with unique elements that vary by region, as well as by economics, law, and cultural history. If all you do at this conference is deliver your own message, you will certainly miss the true value of the event.
And, returning to my wine marketing role in Texas, I have already given the same presentation to local industry professionals, and adapted it to incorporate feedback learned at the conference.
Two Ears and One Mouth — even when you are asked to speak, that’s still the proper ratio for communication at IWINETC.
Cheers, Miguel Lecuona, Wine Marketing Guide, Fredericksburg, Texas.
I was very happy to be part of the delegates at IWINETC 2015 in my city of Reims…
About the organisation of the days it was really interesting and we had greats speakers, met nice and interesting persons, discovered a lot of cultures, wines, champagnes, countries and practices. Thanks a lot for it ! It was too short to go to all the conferences, to speak longer with the persons.
About the speakers, I was very happy to take part of a lot of the conferences, and was sad to be unable to go to more than that. Happily we’ll have now the notes the speakers are kind to share with us.
If some of the IWINETC participants/delegates want to come again, they’ll welcome by me. Hilarie Larson said during her speech that we need a welcome gene to welcome warmly and sincerely people and I have this gene 😉 I would like to give them the best welcome possible and stay in touch through social media, mails, phone or meeting in the future. It’s really interesting and humanely a great experience to take part of an event like IWINETC and also to share after it our experience, business, culture and so on. I’m sure that in the next IWINETC in Barcelone, Spain, it’ll have also a lot to visit and taste. Hope my english is not so bad and you’ll all understand and without too much errors/mistakes
Thank you a lot to you, Anthony and to all the others who help you for the organisation and well done and thank you to all the speakers who shared their knowledges, experiences, and much more.
Mireille RUINART – CREACTIONS, Reims, France.