Wine tourism is good both for the travelling wine lover and for the wineries that he visits. The wineries in Argentina have understood that and are making an effort to develop the wine tourism in 2014, according to a report in Winesur.com.
The Ruca Malén Winery in Mendoza reported a 7% increase in visitors in 2013. Gabriela Scalabroni of the Bodega Norton Winery, also in Mendoza, said to Winesur “in recent years we have experienced a strong growth in the tourism sector”.
For wineries developing wine tourism can have several benefits. It may lead to some additional sales at the cellar door but that is perhaps not the most important effect. The people who come to a winery will often become faithful drinkers of that wine. They might even become “ambassadors” to their friends of the winery.
Some wineries are today investing in facilities to receive guest, shops, even restaurants and sometimes guest rooms, and staff to receive visitors.
This is all very good and a positive development. The more people who come to a wine region, be it in Argentina or in any other country, the more enthusiastic wine drinkers we will have.
“Wine tourism has steadily grown worldwide in the last decade. Those tourists interested in visiting new regions want to try different wines and experience everything around this beverage. Wine regions have developed important strategies to offer visitors an unforgettable experience. The idea is to make them come back another time and share the experience with their family and friends” says Claudia Oritz in her article on wine tourism on Winesur.
But there are many different kinds of wine tourism.
This recent development is not really of great importance to a professional wine travel operator, like BKWine. When people come on a wine tour with BKWine they should not expect to be met by a professional winery guide / sales assistant in the wine cellar shop…
Instead, the travellers who go on one of our wine tours can rather expect to meet the winemaker or the owner of the winery. They will have private tastings that are not available to the casual visitor. And they might even be invited to a gourmet meal in the winery’s private rooms.
That is one reason why a travelling with a specialised wine tour operator will be very different from travelling on one’s own or travelling with a tour company that is not a specialist.
If you do not believe me, just come on one of our tours!
Nevertheless, all types of wine tourism is good both for wineries and for wine lovers!
You can read more on wine travel in Argentina here and see our Argentina and Chile wine tour program here.
