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The Four Successful Types Of Wine Tourism

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Wine tourism is becoming increasingly important for wine producers. In California it has been estimated to contribute $ 2 billion annually to the economy. The Wine Routes of Spain has increased revenues by over 15% according to tourism-review.com. The Silicon Valley Bank recently published a report showing that 60% of American wineries’ sales are direct-to-consumers (DTC).

Wine is more and more sold directly to consumers and more and more to wine drinkers far away. Today almost 40% of all wine is consumed in a country other than where it was made. In 2000 the number was only 22%.

Wine tourism is increasingly an important source of revenue directly or indirectly. It contributes to on-site sales of course but perhaps more importantly it is also a long term project for a winery to engage in building a brand and establishing a relationship with customers. That is more important than short term revenues. At least, that was one of the points that I tried to convince the listeners about in a recent conference on wine tourism.

Citta del Vino wine tourism conference, copyright BKWine Photography

BKWine Photography

I was invited to speak on wine tourism at the annual Città del Vino wine tourism conference in Torgiano in Umbria (a lovely Italian region sometimes called, not without reason, “Tuscany without tourists” with wines like Sagrantino di Montefalco, Orvieto etc). Città del Vino is a cooperation organisation for Italian towns involved in wine tourism. It is a big and important organisation in Italy pulling a lot of strings to promote wine tourism, primarily to wineries and local municipalities. They wanted a view from the outside illustrated with examples for different countries, based on my experiences from visiting more than two hundred wineries each year.

Here is a brief summary of what I said about how to be successful in wine tourism.

First, take the “supply side” of wine tourism, the wineries. You can divide wine tourism into 4 different categories categories and a winery need to be aware of what kind of project it gets into.

“Open Door” wine tourism

Receiving people for wine tastings and cellar visits. Sometimes people also talk about “cellar door” wine tourism, but that can involve many different things that goes far beyond what I mean with it here.

“Edutainment” (education + entertainment)

This is something more, something a little bit more complex and organised than “just a visit”. For example: blending session, harvesting workshop, vineyard nature walks, cooking class….

“Disneyland” Wine Tourism

It is important to underline that I use this label without any intention of giving it a negative connotation! I have simply not found a good word for it. This is Big Budget projects, often with mixed contents also including “general” tourism (not directly wine related). For example restaurant, hotel, museum…

“Eventification”

This refers to one-time events focussed on wine. For example: wine festivals, fête du vin, gastro-walks, village harvest festival etcetera.

For examples of these different kinds of wine tourism, see the note at the end of the text.

European symposium on wine tourism in Torgiano, Citta del Vino, copyright BKWine Photography

BKWine Photography

On the “demand side” of wine tourism you have the wine tourist. There are different kinds of wine tourist. Here’s how you can segment the types of wine tourists:

  • The Wine Geeks: Want to know everything. Wine is the sole purpose.
  • The Gastro-Tourist: Food and wine is an important element.
  • The Passing-By Casual (Wine) Tourist: “We’re in a wine region so let’s visit a winery.”

This is something that is sometimes forgotten. Not every wine tourist is the same. Not every wine tourist wants the same kind of experiences.

So what can a winery do to make a wine tourism project successful?

There is of course no single answer to this. It depends on the project and it also depends on the location. It is easier to attract tourist to Napa Valley, next to San Francisco (5 million inhabitants) and to Stellenbosch in South Africa, next to Cape Town (4 million people), than to, for example, Cahors in the South of France that is a 6 hours’ drive away from Paris.

Maybe the most important factor in a successful wine tourism project is collaboration. Wine tourism is a bit like social media. If you are all alone on Facebook it is of no interest. But if you are many, things start to happen. The network effect. Similarly, the more wineries, restaurants, museums, hotels, tourist offices, wine shops and other shops etc etc that are involved and that cooperate, the better it will work. That is perhaps not an easy thing to do if one’s mind-set is focussed on competing rather than collaborating.

There are also a few other keywords to keep in mind for the winery: sharing with the visitor, enthusiasm, authenticity.

A small wine cellar in Montepulciano in Italy, copyright BKWine Photography

BKWine Photography

One need not be afraid of not having a “beautiful” cellar or a perfectly organised tasting room. As long as people at the winery are prepared to share their story with the visitors it will work even in the simplest cellar.

Basically, it is easy. Wine tourism is all about giving people a memorable experience. And a personal experience. Something to remember. Something to bring home (physically perhaps: a wine bottle; but more importantly: something in the head). Something that will make them remember the winery and the wines and that will make them talk about it.

Happy people with wine in their glasses at a winery visit, copyright BKWine Photography

BKWine Photography

A winery really just needs three things to start:

  • To want to receive visitors
  • Good tasting glasses, and
  • Clean WCs

After all what really counts are happy people with wine in their glasses!

—Per Karlsson

Note: If you want to read the full conference presentation, including many examples of successful wine tourism projects from around the world, you can read it here: The 4 Different Kinds of Wine Tourism.

 

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