Most of you know I’m a huge Garyvee fan and about this time last year I went to one of his book signings.  Getting a pep talk from the wine and social guru did it for me then (see my video and blog post from Mar 2011) and then the other day I found his CNN segment taped last Dec, with the same topic.     Gary uses social media to do what he calls “humanize the business” and “scaling caring” – he seeks out relationships, listens and contributes to conversations.  He says he understands his customers to a level that he knows what their emotional hooks are, beyond their purchases.  Thank you Gary for spelling out how to use social media to everyone once again.

If you need another reminder on how to use social media and why, here is Gary’s clip as seen on Piers Morgan:

This is what I used to tell brands when I was consulting but now that I’m thick in the weeds of building a business it doesn’t come as naturally as there are about a million other things to do.  Gary’s CNN clip came at a good time.  Last week I had another breakthrough.  I called 30 top customers and spent a lot of time listening and asking questions.  What I thought people wanted, why they wanted it and what they really thought were quite different things.  I also learned about two very different customer profiles and how we needed to talk to them differently. Why did it take this long for me to wake up and do this?  I have done calls, surveys and focus groups many times before in other companies, but when you’re busy it is easy to get sidetracked and forget the basics.

Giving customers the chance to tell me about their experience with the brand not only helps them feel more connected to the brand, but it creates a relationship that will ultimately pay off down the line.  It is stuff like this that will get people even more tuned in to what we are doing, encourage them to tell their friends and feel like they can reach out to “a real person” as opposed to a brand.  It says “we care”. Personalization of brands, in my opinion, is absolutely crucial in today’s competitive marketplace – and the insights I learned were so valuable.  Sitting around conference rooms discussing “what people want to see” is a waste of time unless you have actual customer insights to discuss.

So what does social media and calling customers have in common? Actually, the goal is exactly the same – to develop one-on-one relationships with customers and build your brand.  It gives you the chance to learn what people have to say about you, learn about what they like about you, and what they don’t, where they shop, how they see your competitors – and gives you the chance to start talking to them.  The problem is that many brands don’t use social media in the right way and only use it to push out content.

Staying in tune on a day to day basis is important, but you can’t always be on the phone with customers.  It’s the reason why tools like Twitter, Quora, Facebook etc are so powerful.  Gary is right this is 100% worth dedicating time and resources to.  It really is a matter of priorities – and using these tools to help you in the right way.  Start listening and caring about what your customers say and you will quickly be a step ahead.  Creating one-on-one relationships have always been and will continue to be the #1 way to market your business.

What do you think?  Please post below or find me on Twitter @mindyjoyce

I’ve always been in awe of entrepreneurs, no matter what their line of business is. But in the wine world, it doesn’t get much more impressive than Michael Mondavi. Recently I had the chance to talk to him and learn where he started from, and what gave him the idea to branch out from California and start an importing company.

Today the Mondavi name speaks volumes in the U.S., having become virtually synonymous with American wine. But surprisingly, in 2004, Michael founded his own international wine importing company, Folio Fine Wine Partners. So I had to ask him: Why not just focus on California wine rather than importing? As it turns out, it all started with a trip he took 37 years ago.

“After my younger brother Tim graduated in 1974, Dad decided to take us to Europe. Day after day for two weeks, we traveled from winery to winery – three to five a day. I had been to Europe several times before that trip, but this time was different. This time, we met with the families, the winemakers, walked through the vineyards and tasted the wines.

“That trip was a real turning point. When we got back, Dad asked me about the most important thing I had learned. And I told him, ‘Everyone talks about how great French wines are, but I think the Italian wines are more pleasing and go better with food.’ I’d fallen in love with Italy, and realized that if people knew about these great wines in America, they would love them too.”

Over time he built relationships with wine families in Europe, and had to make a major decision after he was approached by Vittorio Frescobaldi to import his wines. Frescobaldi belongs to one of the oldest wine families in Tuscany, one that has made wine for over 30 generations and 700 years. Michael realized he couldn’t import just one wine – he needed to create a portfolio. But that wouldn’t come easy.

“In 2004, I sat with my son Rob and started with maps of Italy and Spain. I went down the list of people whom he would be proud to represent in the U.S. Then we traveled to each of the family estates two to three times with our winemaker, Tony Coltrin, who has worked with us for more than 35 years. Together we met the people, saw the vineyards, watched how they respected the soil and checked how clean the cellars were. With each family it took about five meetings before we started to talk about importing the wines into the US. And not everyone said yes. But it’s like relationships – you have to date a lot of people to find the right ones.”

Like many entrepreneurs, Michael is absolutely passionate about what he does, and he is driven by a deeper purpose. His passion is ignited by the thrill of discovery. And for him, the reward is the look on a person’s face when he or she really likes the wine. “Our ultimate goal is keeping our customers happy,” he says, “because if they’re happy once, they’ll come back.”

In the U.S., wine tourism is driven by having to sell wine in the winery  and many wineries are dependent on wine tourism for survival.  About half of their direct to consumer sales actually come from the tasting room – hence the importance of driving visitors to wine regions and into tasting rooms.

In terms of understanding how to tap into potential travelers and wine buyers online, the marketing mindset of the wine tourism industry is about where the travel industry was 10 years ago.  The industry is made up of wineries and tourism boards that have been generally slower to adapt and just not as exposed to online tech and where the travel industry as a whole is going.   But they both have big fish who are highly successful and continue to lead the industry (Mondavi, etc). The difference in the wine world is that although wineries are dependent on tasting room sales, a great proportion of them wineries are, what I’d call “marketing in a box” and are not able to see that collaboration will benefit them more than working in isolation.

Michael Mondavi

1. A rising tide raises all boats. When Michael Mondavi speaks, the industry listens.  His message came through loud and clear: “Promote Napa first, winery brands second”.  Obviously this message can be applied to wine from any region, but with over 400 wineries in Napa alone,  the expense involved in producing wine, and the reliance on tasting room sales, means wine tourism is something every winery needs to be taking seriously.

Success in this business is dependent on these small brands seeing themselves as part of a bigger picture.  So what does this big picture look like?  Every year in the U.S. wine tourism generates $3B of tourism expenditure * (hotels, tours, rental cars, etc.).  When you look at it this way, tourism actually generates more revenue for regions than the revenue wineries generate from tasting room sales.  On average people visit 2-3 wineries on a trip* and marketing regions or travel packages and compelling winery experiences can help everyone.  Looking at the effect of wine tourism in Napa alone, wineries had 8.5 million visits in 2007, generated $714 million in expenditures, 10,217 tourism related jobs, and $250M in wages.  Big business indeed.

“The world doesn’t need another winery.  Give yourself a reason to be.” – Michael Mondavi

2. Differentiation is key.  “Wineries need to find ways to differentiate themselves” – Mondavi couldn’t have spelled it out more clearly.  It’s true, finding a point of difference, something unique about the brand and presenting it as part of the visitor experience is the way to differentiate.   Wineries that understand this have successfully created dedicated spaces for wine and taken time to really understand the visitor experience and how it speaks to their brands: “Super Cave” rooms, the additional of food, the addition of art, music, all to create a more specialized visitor experiences.  More data discussed by Mondavi:

• Napa is 4% of the CA wine industry (by volume)
• 80% of 400 wineries in Napa are under 10,000 cases
• 95% of wineries in Napa are family owned
• $42B to economy nationally
• Ripple effects are way beyond individual vineyards and wineries

3. “Winery tourism is brand building”.  People who visit wineries are brand ambassadors. People buy because of a personal connection, an experience or memory of a place they’ve been.  There was a lot of discussion about measuring the ROI of  wine tourism and the effect of the tasting room environment on the amount sold.  Even though wineries differ on the level of sophistication in their measurement, everyone seemed to understand that winery tourism needs to be part of their wine marketing strategies.

4. The potential for direct to consumer wine sales is huge.  It’s easy to forget that that wine sold direct to the consumer is only 3% of US sales.  This breaks down into 2%  sold in tasting rooms, and 1% of all US wine is shipped/sold direct.   This presents a huge opportunity for change.  In the National Economic Study from 2007, national winery D to C sales was estimated at $1.75B out of $23.8B total sales of US wine.  And, even more staggering, 88.5% US adults have never bought wine directly from the winery (online or in a tasting room). Even though a very tiny amount of people have ever been to a tasting room, the ones that do visit have a huge effect.

5. Popular regions for wine production do not necessarily mirror wine tourism.  There are 27.3 million visits to wineries across 50 states.  I was really surprised to learn that New York’s Finger Lakes gets as much as 5 million visits a year, compared to the Napa Valley, with about 8.5 million.  We also heard about the significant wine tourism focus from states such as MO, NC, OR, WA, and B.C. in Canada.

6. The demo doesn’t get much better:  A heads up for luxury marketers.  The winery visitor is about the highest quality consumer demographic you can have:  $75-100K+ HHI, empty nesters, 45+, well educated, managerial/professional, entrepreneurs, children <18 not at home, with men being termed as “trophy drinkers”.  They tend reside in wealthy suburban, ex-urban areas and also retirement resorts (ie Bend, OR, Sun Valley, Jackson Hole) & college towns (highly educated).   Top interests of winery visitors include skiing, frequent fliers, tennis, charities, foreign travelers, cultural events.

“Selling wine is about communicating the place it comes from.” Paul Wagner, BALZAC

7. The importance of creating memorable experiences.  Paul Wagner’s lively presentation hit home, and speaks to exactly what I’m working on at Lot18.  Memorable experiences are ultimately what will build brands that will last forever.  Creating opportunities to build relationships and create experiences for customers are they keys to ensuring future sales and loyalty.

8. Tapping into major events.  Napa Valley was announced as the “official wine region” of the 2013 America’s Cup – just  one example of the many bigger events that wineries can tap into.  The America’s Cup alone is expected to drive 5 million visitors into San Francisco.  Understanding how to be part of larger initiatives is better than struggling along to gain share of voice.

9.  You want people to sign up for your wine club so why don’t you tell them about it?  A staggering 75% of wineries are not presenting the wine club opportunity to tasting room visitors.  I am constantly talking to wineries who have building their wine clubs as a top priority so this came as a big of a surprise.

10. Non-wine is important in “wine country experiences”.   For travel packages and itineraries a well balanced experience is more appealing to travelers.  Interests that have come through in research studies include skiing, tennis, adventure, charities, educational, and cultural events.

Sources:

• Barbara Insel – Stonebridge Research Group
• National Economic Impact of Wine study 2005-7
• Nielsen Study 2007 – Winery Tourism National Survey
• Paul Wagner from BALZAC
• TripAdvisor
• Michael Mondavi
• Ship Compliant

The US Travel Association estimates that 27 million* Americans travel each year for the purposes of culinary or wine-related tourism.  This is a big number, and it’s certainly big enough for many wineries to realize the opportunity and decide whether some fine-tuning is needed in their marketing strategies.

With the inaugural Wine Tourism Conference (#WineTourismConf) underway in Napa this week, the leaders of this ever-growing and substantial niche of the travel industry, and still underrated subset of the wine industry, are coming together for the first time.

At Lot18 we’ve just completed two successful hospitality marketing webinars where we had almost 40 wineries participate.  Since then, I’ve had so many people reach out to me, from winery owners to tasting room staff for additional sessions.  Wine tourism has never been in the limelight more than it is right now.

If you’re not involved in the wine business, you probably think the wineries are doing okay with this.  The truth is that most wineries in America are not big names that have big marketing budgets.  There are thousands of wineries with fabulous wines and/or winery experiences but they don’t have promotional budgets. Some of them focus their marketing activity solely on their wines, and by default this attracts some visitors, but many of them are looking at new ways of approach this – and they should. The most successful wineries see hospitality marketing this as a long-term approach to building their brands, which includes selling wine and getting people to visit.

Most of the wineries I talk to are small family-run businesses who are not looking to be tourism destinations. They just want the right people. One of the biggest reasons that wine tourism in this country hasn’t developed to its full potential is because there is a gap in knowledge.  When it comes to visiting wine country, many travelers don’t know what they don’t know and go to the wineries they have heard of, or whatever is near the hotel.  And, there are a lot of wineries that don’t know or haven’t thought about marketing strategies to reach today’s traveler.

I was really thrilled that so many wineries attended the our webinars and I’ve had a lot of requests since, so I thought I’d post some of what we covered here.  This is the first of five posts geared to wineries.  Most of this can be applied to other tourism businesses, and marketing in general.

Who do you want walking through your tasting room door?

Now, if you’re not in the wine business, here are the basics:  Wineries want to: 1. Reach a large audience of actual wine buyers, 2. Introduce wine buyers to their brands, 3. Get people into the tasting room, 4. Turn them into lifetime customers.

There is a big difference between the connection a consumer feels about your product when they see it on the shelves, versus coming to the place it was made – and meeting the people who make it. In the case of many wineries that have a long-term vision for their businesses, appealing to an audience of travelers is critical to building a long-lasting, high value brand.

Tips:

• Many travelers are “Destination Collectors”: Luxury travelers particularly may have either already visited the region, or may be considering visiting, but need a compelling reason. What will it take to get them to return to your region, then your winery?  Developing an experience that is unmatched and highlights what is unique and special about your winery (and wine brand) will get this on their radar.
• Travel marketers will tell you that travel decisions tend to be heavily influenced by women (usually about 70%) and the destinations they visit are heavily influenced by family and friends (81%).  Think about it, how often have you heard about a friend’s great trip then planned your own trip to that place?
• Put yourself in the shoes of someone planning a trip to wine country:  Where would you start? What are the touch-points online and offline, and in-destination?  What are their expectations of a tasting room visit?  You really need to walk through this process and then evaluate how your winery does in each of these consumer touch points.

Stay tuned for more tips & updates from the Wine Tourism Conference. Please post your feedback below.

* US Travel Association 2007 Survey

I often visit winery tasting rooms and I always love to see wineries, or any location for that matter, remind guests or customers to tell their friends. People do need to be reminded to check in sometimes, and they will check in or post information about your business. Nielsen reports that 70% of people turn to friends and family for advice when making purchasing decisions. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money to be part of this conversation. Simple things like store front signs and stickers can really help remind people to tell their friends – all of this helps keep your brand top of mind and helps you attract new customers.

I was thrilled to see this at Kunde Family Estate in Sonoma when I visited, and again at Bodegas Torre de Ona in Rioja, Spain.  All over the world brands are embracing social media to help tell their story.  Wine is social and so is travel, and food, dining…basically any kind of location can incorporate simple marketing tactics like this to build word of mouth.  I encourage everyone to think about the consumer touch points of their business and how they can make it easy for their customers to tell their story.

Rioja is an extremely impressive wine region to visit. I can’t think of another region that offers this kind of extreme contrast in winery experiences. From the hundreds of traditional wineries with their underground tunnels and caves, to the new, architecturally-designed modern wineries, Rioja is full of surprises and is visually stunning. There is so much old world history here, as you’d expect, yet there are many wineries with technically very sophisticated, and very modern production facilities.

The restaurant at Bodegas Baigorri

Here’s the challenge:
• Most wineries are appointment only: Rioja spans 3 different regions and consists of about 1,000 wineries. I visited Rioja Alta, the region known for the best quality wines. There are about 400 vineyards in this region. About 99% of the wineries are appointment only. Most of them are either set up for small groups or not set up for tourists at all. Visitors that come with expectations from other wine regions may be disappointed. It’s not like Napa, for example, and you can’t just drive to wineries and do tastings. The only one you really don’t need an appointment for is Marques de Riscal. It is one of the biggest wineries and they do several tours a day in different languages. But, if this was your only experience of a winery in Rioja it would only tell you one side of the story of this diverse region.

• Two other issues: language and language. If wineries are open to visitors, staff may or may not speak English. If they speak English, it may not be easy to understand.

• Popular producers may not offer the best visitor experiences. Wineries consumers may have heard of (i.e: wine that is imported into the US) either, may not be open to the public, may not offer a good visitor experience, and/or may not make good wine. At this point the consumer would need to do a lot of research to find the right wineries to visit.

• Iconic wineries may not offer the best visitor experiences. Wineries consumers may have seen in magazines and guidebooks because they were designed by a famous architect, may not necessarily offer great winery experiences or maybe they do not make high quality wine. In some cases, these were not designed with the winemaking process in mind and are more of statement by the architect. It does not necessarily mean they do not make good wine, it simply means that other wineries may offer a better experience, perhaps top quality wine is not the focus. The same goes for hotels, an iconic lobby may not mean the hotel rooms/staff/restaurant will be fantastic. Sometimes these architecturally designed properties set consumer expectations so high that it makes it very hard to live up to them. But, understandably, the reason for doing this is to attract attention.

Bodegas Ysos, Rioja, designed by Santiago Calatrava

The hotel at Marques de Riscal designed by Frank Gehry

I visited Bodegas Baigorri and it’s definitely one of the most impressive wineries I’ve ever seen. The winery is designed with the winemaking process in mind. It has a gravity-based production facility with state of the art equipment. There are about 7 levels that hug the side of a mountain so all of this is done underground. All you see from the outside is the top lobby area. They hare a fabulous restaurant that offers 5-course tasting menu with a spectacular view of the valley.

Production facilities at Bodegas Baigorri

Bodegas Torre de Oña was also fantastic. It has a beautiful tasting room, great information and excellent wines. It combines old building style with elements of modern design. I think what makes both of these experiences so great was my fabulous wine expert/guide Jenny and the tasting room manager Paola, whose English was perfect and very easy to understand. I got so much out of my visit with a guide than I ever could have on my own.

So where does the opportunity lie for wine tourism?

• For small group/wine tour companies: There are fabulous tasting rooms and incredible experiences, but you absolutely have to know where to go. I think the opportunity for Rioja lies in small group tours with a multi-lingual guide that is also a wine expert. I think these small companies need to let wine lovers know who they are and how easy an amazing wine experience can be. Small group tours are also the way to go to satisfy wine lovers. The last thing people want is to go through a factory with a lot of people with a guide reading a script of how wine is made.

• For wineries: Wineries that want to attract visitors should make it easy for people to book appointments on their websites and give them a way to signify which language they understand. Websites need to offer language options for all their content.

Rioja is ready for wine tourism, but it has to be done the right way. How does this compare with your experience in other wine regions? I look forward to hearing your feedback.

The guest house at Bodegas Torre de Oña

Groupon and Expedia create Groupon Getaways

Ideeli & Voyage Prive team up to provide even more content on Ideeli, and Ideeli Travel is born

Off & Away goes private

Bloomspot adds travel email

BuyWithMe adds “Destinations” travel email

Jetsetter brings back the travel agent – adds Travel Planning Service

Take a look at this example of Jefferson Hotel, a Relais & Chateaux property, now seen on Groupon.  This is a luxury property and even I was surprised to see this.  As we know, high end hotels are reluctant to show discounting like this.   Relais & Chateaux certainly pride themselves on maintaining a luxury brand.  What I don’t know is whether they realized their relationship with Expedia would result in this kind of “extra exposure”.   I am not saying Groupon Getaways is not a good marketing platform – for certain types of hotels it is.

Before you do your next Groupon or group buying site promotion here are some tips:

1. Know which sites your offer will appear on beyond the site you are promoting the offer with.  For example, this Groupon is coming through Expedia.  Did the Jefferson just work with Expedia and do they realize they are a Groupon?  Perhaps it is just a way to syndicate content and the hotels are not involved in the decision.  Make sure you know where your brand is going to end up. Know which sites have partnerships with others. Will your offer be syndicated or end up on other sites?

2. Know your target audience and make sure it is aligned with the site’s demographics.

3. Educate yourself on all the options.  There are other group buying or flash sites that may be a better fit for your brand.

4. What is your objective?  Do you want to quickly fill rooms or attract high quality guests?  It is a quality vs quantity play.

5. Test small promotions on sites that fit what you want to do.  All group buying sites let you cap the amount of room nights.   When you find something you are happy with then offer more inventory.  Do not try to go with a site that can offer mass volume because they have a lot of members when you don’t know how it is likely to perform or what quality it will create.

6. Think about your brand alignment.  Does being listed on the site make my brand look better or not?  The last thing you want to do is work with a site that will diminish the years of work that has gone into creating value of your brand in the consumer’s mind.

7. Think about your drive markets and which are the top cities guests are already coming from.  Ask the site to give you a breakdown of subscribers by geography.  I don’t know why Groupon is showing it’s Las Vegas audience a Washington D.C. hotel.

Travel industry friends, speak up on this topic.  What do you think?

Every week Mandy features people who have inspired her and who are creating the lives they want on her blog.   This week she asked me.  Check out Mandy’s blog, My Six Months Off, to see the other people she has featured.  I’m always fascinated by stories of what others have done to create the life they want.  I’m so glad I inspired Mandy and honored to be part of this group.  If you’re thinking about taking the plunge yourself, I hope I can inspire you too.

As told to Mandy Gresh for 5Q Friday for her blog, My Six Months Off

5Q Friday with Mindy Joyce

1.) Who are you?
I’m a lot of things; a marketer, idea maven, entrepreneur. I also love to travel and learn about wine. I’m definitely a risk taker. I was born in New Zealand and moved to the US when I was 21. Now 35, I’ve lived in Los Angeles, New York and now across the Hudson in Jersey City. My life during the week is in Manhattan, and I’m a Jersey girl most nights and on the weekends.

2.) What do you do/what’s your business?
First and foremost I’m an entrepreneur and like to collaborate with others to create meaningful businesses. In 2010, I created my own company, Sugarfly Marketing because I saw a need for a strategic approach to marketing using social media and PR. A lot of brands still can’t figure out how to interact with their customers through social platforms, or don’t have the resources internally, so Sugarfly was born.

Anyone who knows me will tell you I love wine, not just drinking the stuff, but can actually tell you a few things about it. And, I’ve also had a ton of years in or around the travel industry. About six weeks ago I was approached about an opportunity at a private sale site for wine called Lot18. The job was to create and build a business segment called “Experiences” (travel and winery experiences) for a community of wine and food lovers. If the stars would ever align in my career, this was it.

Now, I get the best of both worlds.

3.) Where do you do it?
My work life is based in New York. I’m also a student at the International Wine Center in New York where I’m studying for my Diploma of Wine & Spirits.

4.) When did you decide to take the plunge and “create the life you want”?
One of the toughest things to do in life (but of course all entrepreneurs go through this) is to say goodbye to a nice paycheck. I left my job in 2010 after a lot of hard thinking and finally came to the conclusion that 1. If I was ever going to have my own company this was the time; 2. I have nothing to lose/I’m still employable if this doesn’t work out; and 3. (my mantra) No regrets.

So, I resigned from my job on a freezing New York day in January and started wine school the next day. I did not have enough savings (stupid me) to fund my marketing company immediately, so I sold health and life insurance for a few months to beef up the bank account. Within 3 months I was in Jamaica as Sugarfly, and another month later I fell into another great client, the group buying site, BuyWithMe, followed by several other clients. My one piece of advice here is to really know what you are truly passionate about and be prepared to do whatever it takes.

5.) Why do you love it?
Unless you’ve had your own business this is hard to describe. It’s rewarding, it’s invigorating, it challenges you in so many more ways that a regular job ever could. I think I learned more about myself and to trust my instincts in the first year of business, than I ever have before. One of my goals was to work with people I truly respect and enjoy being around. This has happened time and time again. I just want to pinch myself when I get to meet the incredible people I do. The feeling of freedom to create your own life is probably the biggest reason to do it.

Learn more about Sugarfly and Lot18.

It all starts with the consumer

Consumers these days are savvy and they want to know more about the wine they are buying that what is written on the label. Wine, is one of those purchases that tells a story, every bottle comes from somewhere and is unique to the region and place it was made. In the case of wine, consumers want to know where the wine comes from, the terroir or something about the producer.

There is nothing romantic or interesting about picking a wine from supermarket shelves – but, if that’s where the consumer wants to buy it then the wine industry should be thinking about how they can differentiate themselves by marketing the tourism aspects of their businesses and encouraging people to visit. Once they visit they will be a lifetime buyer of their wine.

So let’s take a look at the wine tourism industry:
At the global level, wine tourism is growing and is considered to be a driver for the economic and social development of many rural areas. This is a big deal. What other industry is fostering the economies in many of these small towns? It seems like an excellent opportunity for small communities to benefit from tourism dollars.

If we look at the US alone, the U.S. Travel Association estimates that 17%, or 27.3 million travelers, have engaged in “culinary or wine-related activities while traveling.” It is also good news when you factor in what they spend on travel (hotels, car rentals etc) as well as the estimated $3 billion they spend while they are in the region on wine and other items.*

In California, almost 21 million travelers visited wine regions in 2008, and Napa Valley alone received 5 million of them. What’s even more interesting is the money they spend and how the economy as a whole benefits. Napa generates over $1 billion dollars each year through wine tourism.** The potential for this to grow is strong: California’s tourism industry as a whole generates $95.1 billion per year.

Let’s look at the global situation. Last month, Great Wine Capitals Network recently unveiled the results of their global study at Vinexpo. This network represents 454 vineyards in 9 different countries and could be used as an indicator of the profile of the global wine tourism market.
Some interesting takeaways (granted, this is just an indicator as it is a survey of specific regions in 9 countries):
• The local/domestic tourism market is huge and equates to about 40% of wine tourists
• It’s still largely male dominated. Only one third of wine tourists are female.
• 75% are over 36 years old
• They travel in the best times of year: 70% of tourists come in summer, 15.3% in autumn (attracted by the wine harvest). This indicates that they may be less influenced by off season rates and more likely to spend to be there in peak season.
• People spend more in Italy and Napa: Average spend in Florence, Italy is €141 & Napa Valley, California at €131. Bordeaux was lower at €52.

So what are vineyards offering tourists?
83% offered a tasting, 75% offered a vineyard tour or a tour related to wine production, 40% offered a pairing wine with food or similar, 29% offered accommodation ( e.g. chambres d’hotes or gite).

Wineries are benefiting from tourism by selling more wine:
32% of total volume was sold by the winegrower on the premises
18% of local wine is sold in bars & restaurants, 16.8% at independent wine retailers (cavistes), 16% in supermarkets and 4.5% via online sales.

So on the winery side, for those not incorporating a tourism experience into their business, they should be. Packaging wine tastings and tours add value to vineyard visits and are what consumers want, particularly international tourists. This all benefits the winery by increasing the number of sales at the premises and increasing the average spend per visit.

The world’s wine-producing countries are taking this segment very seriously. The South African tourism industry sees the strongest growth and highest profitability in the sector of wine tourism. In 2009, wine tourism contributed €440 million to total tourist income in South Africa.*** In New Zealand, 37% of international tourists participate in wine tourism and spend more than other international travelers ($3,543 NZD compared to an average spend of $2,710 NZD). Malbec’s worldwide success has led to an increase in wine tourism in Argentina. Over 500,000 tourists went through Mendoza wineries, an increase of 68%, compared with the same period in 2009 and a 10.5% more than the national average.

Wine tourism is definitely on the rise. Wineries and vineyards need to consider what they are offering as the tourism aspect of their business and be savvy about marketing to the wine traveler. For many, this is an untapped business, but surely will help them ultimately drive more wine sales and generate lifetime customers. Regions and marketing agencies should be actively seeking out ways to raise awareness for their wine tourism infrastructure and engage with wine and food enthusiasts. This savvy audience spends more and is more interested in coming to rural areas to seek out unique and authentic wine experiences.

If you have any comments I’d love to hear them. Please post below.

Sources: * US Travel Association 2007 data, ** The Vine Route, ***Vitisphère – 20 April 2011