Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

To help welcome wine bloggers to the Penticton area this week, Acting Mayor Garry Litke has proclaimed Thursday, June 6 as Wine Bloggers Day in the city.

Litke said it is important to recognize these visitors because they are on the leading edge of social media awareness.

"They got us on Huffington Post as one of the most desirable places to visit, so they are welcome in our town anytime," he said.

The influential visitors will be attending the 2013 North American Wine Bloggers Conference from June 6 to 8 at the Penticton Lakeside Resort, which will be the hub of the conference with a packed schedule of seminars, wine tastings and menus overseen by the resort's chef Chris Remington.

The content and location choice is driven by the bloggers themselves. The team at Tourism Penticton, along with social media consulting firm, All She Wrote, first engaged the online wine world via numerous social networks to get wine bloggers from across North America excited about coming to BC.

"The majority of attendees are US based wine bloggers with wide spheres of influence," said Allison Markin, of All She Wrote.

"The online chatter is already extremely active as the registrants, many of whom have never been to Canada, let alone BC, are eager to learn about our emerging wine and food culture."