How Grande Provence built demand for the off-season and set a new trading record

A winter weekend in the Winelands has plenty going for it. A long lunch. A glass of wine. Time to slow down. A reason to stay another night.

Yet for a tourism business, having something wonderful to offer in winter does not automatically mean people will think to book it.

That was the challenge behind our work with Grande Provence Heritage Wine Estate in Franschhoek. The estate already brought together so much of what people travel to the Winelands for: accommodation, restaurants, wine tasting, celebrations and beautiful surroundings. Summer brought international visitors and the familiar flow of travellers on the Franschhoek Wine Tram.

The quieter months called for a different approach.

When Grande Provence appointed Eco Africa Digital in early 2026, the brief was clear: strengthen local awareness and build direct demand during the low and shoulder seasons.

By August, Grande Provence reported its strongest August trading month in the estate’s history.

To understand that result, though, we need to go back to January.

One of the easiest traps in tourism marketing is to let the calendar dictate when the conversation begins. Summer gets summer content. Winter arrives, bookings soften, and suddenly everyone is talking about winter specials.

By then, you are asking people to discover you, become interested and make a booking in a fairly short space of time.

For Grande Provence, we started earlier.

From January, we began consistently presenting the estate as a destination for all seasons. Alongside the wine experience, we brought accommodation, dining, the Bistro, events and weddings into the story.

The question guiding us was simple: what would give someone a reason to choose Grande Provence at another time of year?

That question changed the emphasis. A beautiful estate could become somewhere to plan a weekend away, meet friends for lunch, celebrate an occasion or return for a different experience.

We wanted those possibilities to feel familiar by the time winter arrived.

Seasonality changes who is available to visit. Our targeting needed to reflect that.

For the winter strategy, we focused on the Western Cape and Gauteng, with a different opportunity in each market.

For Western Cape audiences, Grande Provence could fit into plans relatively close to home: a restaurant booking, a wine tasting, a celebration or a weekend in Franschhoek.

For Gauteng travellers, the opportunity centred on a domestic escape to the Cape Winelands.

This is a distinction I care about. “Local” is a useful starting point, but people still need a reason to travel, and that reason depends partly on where they are coming from.

Someone considering a lunch has a different decision to make from someone planning a flight and a few nights away. Our content and campaigns needed to speak to those different intentions while keeping the estate’s overall story consistent.

There is something compelling about a slower Winelands weekend. Food and wine become the occasion. A leisurely stay becomes part of the plan.

Our accommodation content drew on those reasons to travel, helping people imagine Grande Provence as a winter getaway in its own right.

That matters because an empty room is a business problem; it is rarely the guest’s reason to book. The guest is thinking about the experience they want.

We needed to connect the estate’s accommodation with something people could look forward to: a romantic escape, a change of scenery or time away close to home.

The wider destination offered more ways into that conversation. Someone interested in the restaurant might discover the accommodation. A wine tasting could introduce someone to a place they would later consider for a celebration or wedding.

We built the marketing around those possibilities, giving each experience a role within the larger Grande Provence story.

An integrated strategy becomes useful when the channels support the same business objective.

Social media helped people discover the estate and picture themselves there. Google Ads captured interest from people actively searching for relevant stays, dining and Winelands experiences. Meta campaigns reached selected domestic audiences and allowed us to reconnect with people who had already engaged.

Search-focused editorial content supported visibility around relevant destinations and experiences, including work aimed at generative search discovery. Email gave Grande Provence a direct way to share seasonal experiences and reasons to return with its existing audience.

Each channel had a job. Together, they kept reinforcing the same idea: Grande Provence was somewhere worth choosing throughout the year.

Starting in January also gave us time to build engaged audiences. As autumn and winter arrived, remarketing could reconnect with people who already recognised the estate.

We could give that existing interest a timely reason to become a visit.

Grande Provence’s report of its best August ever was particularly meaningful because August fell within the quieter period we had set out to strengthen.

It was a business outcome directly relevant to the original brief.

The estate’s team delivered the experiences that gave people a reason to visit. Our role was to help those experiences reach relevant audiences and give that interest a path towards a booking.

For our team, that is the outcome that gives the work its purpose: helping a tourism business build demand when it needs it.

Grande Provence has since extended its partnership with Eco Africa Digital and expanded the scope to include AI Concierge and further work on search and AI discoverability.

That includes SEO, alongside GEO and AEO: helping the estate’s information become easier to find and understand through generative search and answer engines.

The next phase builds on the same foundation. People need to discover the estate, understand what makes it relevant to them and find a clear path towards an enquiry or booking.

It is also how I think about our Eco Africa Digital Growth System™ in practice. Discovery, engagement, conversion, connection, growth and learning should work together around the business’s priorities. Performance data then helps us refine the approach as we go.

The lesson I take from Grande Provence is about preparation.

We began with a specific commercial challenge. We identified domestic audiences with a realistic opportunity to visit. Then we gave those audiences consistent reasons to consider the estate, building familiarity before the quieter months arrived.

For another hotel, estate or tourism business, the right audience and story may be different. The question is still worth asking early: who could choose you outside your busiest season, and what would make that choice appealing?

At Grande Provence, that work began in January. By August, the estate was reporting a new trading record.

If you want stronger demand beyond your peak season, I would love to talk about where that work could begin for your business.

Start a Growth Conversation with Eco Africa Digital

Read the full story: Grande Provence Heritage Wine Estate growth story