Caroline Beteta was confirmed today as a keynote speaker of the Wine Tourism Conference 2011, opening the conference with a welcoming address about The Big Picture of Wine Tourism. Wine industry journalists Ray Isle, Leslie Sbrocco, and Sara Schneider were all confirmed to speak on a panel about What Makes a Great Wine Region.
Caroline Beteta serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the industry-led California Travel and Tourism Commission (CTTC) and simultaneously serves as the Deputy Secretary for Tourism in the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency. In her duel capacity, she is responsible for implementing CTTC’s $50 million global marketing plan and serving as lead spokesperson for California’s $87.7 billion tourism industry. Under her leadership, California tourism programs have brought in an average of nearly $4 billion annually to the state’s economy, and increased the state share of the domestic market by 3%, reversing a decade-long decline.
Caroline was recently appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke to the Corporation for Travel Promotion (CTP), and has received numerous awards for her creative work and leadership in the travel industry, including 2009 State Tourism Director of the Year.
Ray Isle, Leslie Sbrocco, and Sara Schneider are all speaking on a panel titled What Makes a Wine Region Great. Ray is the Executive Wine Editor of Food & Wine and the co-host of American Public Television’s Vine Talk. He is a regular guest on national media, appearing on programs such as Today, The Early Show, Good Morning America, CNN’s Your Bottom Dollar & Saturday Newsroom, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and American Public Media’s “The Splendid Table.”
Leslie is an award-winning, columnist, speaker, wine consultant, television host, and author of the Georges Duboeuf Best Wine Book of the Year award-winning Wine for Women: A Guide to Buying, Pairing and Sharing Wine. She appears regularly on the Today Show offering her wine expertise and is the host of the PBS series Check Please!, for which she has won both the coveted James Beard award and two Emmy awards.
Sara is Sunset magazine’s first wine editor, responsible for tasting panels, food-and-wine pairing in the test kitchen, wine-related food and travel coverage, Sunset’s Western Wine Awards program, the magazine’s wine club, and the book California Wine Country, a Sunset Field Guide. Sara has been nominated twice for James Beard Journalism Awards and holds the Academy of Wine Communication’s Certificate for Excellence in Wine Writing.
We are very pleased to have these four wine and tourism industry experts appearing at the Wine Tourism Conference!