Whilst the South African wine industry is still in the early stages of developing a strategy for selling wine in China and promoting wine tourism, other nations and regions are rapidly moving ahead with innovative marketing ways to capture the Chinese market.
South Australia are doing that by ignoring formal wine dinners and trade shows and hosting an eight-day promotional event in the French quarter of Shanghai.
Called Sauchin 2011, the organizers describe it as a “unique promotion in Shanghai to identify South Australia as a producer of desirable premium bottled wine in the China market place and as a fantastic tourism destination”.
Sauchin 2011 is targeting 30 to 45-year-old young Chinese professionals and the hospitality industry. “This demographic is the future of South Australian wine sales in China and the target market for tourism to South Australia.”
South Africa needs to get into the game quickly, and innovatively.