Winery operators say they are bullish about the future, but they would say that, wouldn't they?
By W. Blake Gray | Posted Saturday, 19-Dec-2020
Despite the most disastrous year for travel in generations, a majority of wineries in the world believe wine tourism will recover, but not until 2022.
Moreover, about 80 percent of wineries believe that wine tourism in their region will increase in the next 10 years, according to an international survey by Winetourism.com.
The survey, conducted in mid-November, got responses from 1203 wineries in 34 countries; 38.7 percent in Italy, 14.5 percent in France and 10.5 percent in Spain.
The main takeaway from the survey is a no-brainer: "Covid-19 has had an extremely large impact on the wine tourism business for wineries." You don't say.
More than half the wineries reported losing 50 percent or more of their wine-tourism income. But some countries did better than others. The brightest spot was Australia, probably because good societal response to mask wearing and social distancing has kept infection rates low in wine regions. More than 20 percent of Australian wineries actually reported an increase in wine tourism income in 2020.
Germany also did better than other countries, with 11 percent of wineries reporting an increase in wine tourism income.
The great majority of wineries – 89 percent – think wine tourism will return to normal by 2022. But a subset of those, 31 percent, are more bullish than that: 41 percent of French wineries think wine tourism will return to normal by 2021. (For much of France, this makes sense as "wine tourism" involves knocking on the door, asking if it's possible to taste, and being told it's lunch time, come back another day.) More than 30 percent of wineries in Australia and Spain also think wine tourism will return to normal in 2021. (Somebody tell the Spanish wineries that British visitors will need a passport next year.)
Optimism reigns
Almost everybody believes their region is going to hit it big; 80 percent of wineries in the world believe wine tourism will increase in their region in the next 10 years. The most optimistic country is Germany, where 89 percent of wineries expect such an increase. (We can see some environmental reasons for this optimism as there may be no country in the world where the wine industry is benefitting more from global warming.)
When asked their most important source of wine tourism income, 56 percent of wineries said cellar door sales of wines, while 37 percent make more from tasting fees, tour fees and other experiences like cooking classes. About 8 percent of wineries make most of their tourism income from renting out the facility for weddings or private parties.
Here's an interesting question about the makeup of tasting-room visitors: when asked who the typical customer is, 57 percent said casual wine tasters, while 15 percent said sophisticated wine tasters. Is there a 4:1 ratio in tasting rooms between the two types of visitors? Data like that would be useful in future surveys, as 32 percent of wineries plan to increase their investment in wine tourism in the next few years.
If you are a fan of a small winery and you couldn't visit its tasting room this year, you might consider this a good moment to order some of its wines online. The statistics show the winery probably needs the income.
December 19, 2020 at 04:15AM
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Wine Tourism Takes an Optimistic Outlook | Wine-Searcher News & Features - Wine-Searcher
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