Here are a few highlights from the final day of the Conference talk programme at IWINETC 2017….
We had some fantastic sessions taking place in the both the Auditorium Etna and the Ciclopi rooms at the Grand Hotel Villa Itría, giving delegates plenty of food for thought not only for professional development but also valuable business ideas and tips. Judith Lewis fresh in from Atlanta and armed with chocolate gave two sessions to inspire us to get to grips with digital marketing (find link building through outreach here) and use the numerous tools to get the wine tourist’s attention to home in to a specific grape escape destination, winery, hotel, restaurant….
The Grape Escape themed talks provided tour operators and agents with several diverse grape escape destinations to consider such as Moldova, Slovenia, Greece and Hungary. Several mini tastings of wines from several countries was well received.
The exhibition area proved once again a popular spot to discover grape escape options while simultaneously networking with fellow professionals
The closing plenary session saw Hungary revealed as the 2018 destination for IWINETC and this was immediately applauded by the audience.
Top Etna wine producer, Benanti received 40 delegates at their property in Viagrande for a vineyard and palmento visit followed by fine Etna Rossos and 3 course dinner.
And finally…
We wanted to say a personal thank you for attending IWINETC this year, and to key supporters: Regione Sicilia, the Sicilia Convention Bureau, Etna Wine Lab, Grand Hotel Villa Itría and to the numerous supporters for filling in the gaps where others failed. If you are leaving us today, have a safe journey home and we look forward to sharing our full IWINETC highlights, photos and videos with you in the coming weeks – so keep an eye out!
IWINETC continues tomorrow with the eagerly awaited Wine Tourism Workshop where 40 tour operators will hold B2B meetings with wine tourism experience providers from around the world and of course with host destination Sicily.
Also going on tomorrow is the wine tasting tour for conference delegates to enjoy to the Etna Wine Region South and East.
See you in Budapest, Hungary in 2018!
The IWINETC Team
