Strengthening University–Industry alliances for sustainable gastrotourism growth
Obreal returned to Stellenbosch and Cape Town this week for the GastroTour project meeting and industry consultation.
Funded under Erasmus+ Capacity Building for Higher Education, GastroTour capitalises on current and past projects such as Vita Global, EnoTour and CLIMAR, to provide skills opportunities and business development tools in the gastronomy and wine tourism sectors in Georgia, South Africa, Portugal, the Czech Republic and the Canary Islands. Coordinate by Telavi State University in Georgia, and engaging industry partners such as Creation Wine and Schuchmann, GastroTour represents a unique university-industry alliance for sustainable development in a major growth sector in the countries involved.
Obreal has offered its training platform, leading the development of online short course for university students and industry practitioners. The meetings in Stellenbosch and Cape Town marked an important milestone on the development of these courses, as they engaged sectoral bodies and industry in South Africa in an important discussion on skilling needs in the sector. The meetings were also an occasion to visit and study models for corporate social responsibility and industry engagement in local development, notably through the Pebbles school project sponsored by Creation wines in the Hermanus region of the Western Cape.
Representing a continued partnership with Stellenbosch University and CPUT, Obreal is pleased to be able to show once again successful models of universities as motors for local development.