Wine Tourism and Its Effects on the Tourist Industry and Promotion of Wine

Introduction

Wine has a more soothing effects than any other drink. It can be said that wine has the capability of infusing its consumers with different pleasure by opening their senses of sight, smell, taste, and touch like no other drink. It appeals from the moment it is poured in the glass through the moment its soothing aromas arouses olfaction, while it touches across your tongue, until well after the moment you sip it, with its eternal zest.

Maybe this is the reason that the wine has been popular from the beginning of wines. A wine lover would like to taste wine from different corners of the world. This is leading to increase in wine tourism. It is becoming gradually significant for wine manufacturers. Therefore, this can be inferred that wine tourism is an important element for both the wine and the tourism industry. Wine and tourism have been correlated with each other for many ages, however, it is recently that this industry has got its due and has been recognized by regimes, researchers and by the industries themselves.

As far as the tourism industry is concerned, wine plays an important role in attracting a tourist to choose a destination and can be an influential factor for visitors. When we talk about the wine industry, wine tourism plays an important role in building a relationship with customers who can have a new experience of tasting different and authentic wine with people who are traveling from different corners of the world. And for smaller wineries, it helps in selling the wine directly to the tourists which hold importance for their business success.

In California, this business contributes almost $ 2 billion annually to the economy. As per the travel market report, the Wine Routes of Spain have increased profits by over 15% per annum. The Silicon Valley Bank recently published data that reflects that 60% of American wineries' sales are direct-to-consumer (DTC). Let us take a note on defining what wine tourism is. It is traveling to vineyards, wineries, wine festivals and wine shows for which grape wine tasting and for experiencing the characteristics of a grape wine region are the prime motivating factors for visitors (Mitchell and Hall, 2004; Tassiopoulos et al). Macionis (1996 1997) explained a structure of wine tourism based around a special interest in wine motivated by the wine region, the activity wine tasting or both.

There is an amazing observation here: wine is sold more to the people from different places rather than to local natives. If we take a recent scenario, then it can be said that almost 40% of wine consumption is outside the country where it was manufactured. The reason for this could be the need to experience most fine wines across the world. This number has increased since the last century. Earlier, in 2000, it was just about 22%of wine consumption. With the above major observation, it can be said that wine tourism is gaining popularity and this sector can be a big a source of revenue for the economy. Its increasing popularity signifies that it is one of the crucial sources of income directly or indirectly to the hospitality industry. In comparison, the Brew industry cannot ignore that wine contributes to a major segments in this type of industry. It is sold over the counter, however, in the longer run, it's a long-term project that requires a winery to be more involved in developing a brand and creating a healthy relationship with its consumer so that sales and revenue can be increased. This will help in creating a long-term relationship. Short term revenues are important for carrying out working capital: however, this will have a major impact on increasing revenue and ultimately will give a positive impact on the growth of this industry.

Wine Tourism as a Wine Business Function/Activity

Wine tourism is the major source of income for many smaller wineries, especially for those who prefer wine making as lifestyle options (Australian Wine Foundation 1996). In my professional opinion for other wineries, wine tourism could have been being a secondary fragment of their occupational process, although noteworthy, possibly playing characters as a sales channel, an advertising channel, or a way of taming the buyer. Wine tourism is hence a significant module of the probable publicizing and retailing mix of wineries and wine businesses. Tourism can be a very important factor in the capability of a vineyard that stockholders will measure a potential site in terms of both viticulture and tourism. As Hooke commented on a new winery in Australia: 'they were knowledgeable enough and smart enough to select a piece of land close to tourist traffic, on a sealed road, on a frost-free slope' (Hooke, 1997: 176). A lot of newly established smaller wineries trade a maximum of their wine at the cellar door and develop a mail-order list and gain an important basis of cash flow in its initial periods (Gillion 1998: 13). For well-known wineries, such as the Brown Brothers in Australia, visitors prefer to provide a test-bed for the latest wines (King Valley, Northeast Victoria) each year, so it's the ideal place to test these varieties on the public' ( Hooke, 1997: 85).

Advantages and Disadvantages of Wine Tourism for Wineries

Here are a few advantages and disadvantages of wine tourism for wineries. Let us discuss them in brief.

Advantages

• It has helped in increasing buyer's exposure towards wine and has helped in increasing and exploring opportunities towards the same.
• This has helped in creating awareness for brands and earning their loyalty by creating the link between the manufacturer and end-user and awareness and loyalty built through establishing links between producer and consumer and buying company-branded merchandise.
• This has helped in earning more profits as this is sold directly to its consumer which reduces distribution cost, marketing costs, etc.
• It is the way for an extra sales channel or, for minor wine manufacturers who cannot assure volume or constancy of supply, the only reasonable sales outlet.
• It provides easy marketing solutions. Winemakers can expect an immediate and valuable response on the buyer's feedback to their ongoing products and can promote their new addition to the existing product range.
• A proper database can be maintained for the visitors to the winery which can be used as a consumer database This will help in analyzing the target consumer and sending them mailers to inform something like discounts or some new product introduction.
• Educating consumers. Traveling to wineries can help in promoting and creating awareness of the different types of wines and things related to it. This will increase the knowledge base of visitors and can create an area of interest for them to know more and to taste and explore more. Therefore, this can increase wine consumption among tourists.

Disadvantages

• This increases costs and management time. When you require paid staff for the operation of a tasting room, it can be very expensive. There will a profitability gap which will be higher on direct sales to that of consumers. This may reduce the revenue if the wineries do not charge for tasting.
• Huge Capital is required. Wineries should be able to provide suitable and amiable facilities for compering visitors. This can prove quite expensive as winemaking is a capital-intensive affair.
• This might not increase sales considerably. There will be a limited number of visitors that a winery can expect. Also, it will be very difficult to sell all the stock that it possesses as they also need to distribute it to other outlets. This can be inferred that a winery needs a few things to start:
• Best wines
• Receive visitors
• Good tasting glasses

Conclusion

Wine tourism is a bright and growing sector that is emerging in a big way. This concept is becoming highly popular in wine regions across the globe. This industry has a wide variety of components that are crucial for the growth and development of the wine and tourism sector. Also, a fact which cannot be ignored is that various wineries and wine businesses uses wine tourism as a strategy for sales, consumer education, brand development and creating amiable customer associations will depend on their size, markets, business strategies and for many owner-operated wineries, lifestyle choices.

This can be said that much of the wine tourism happens in a win escape, some wine-motivated travel, for instance, to wine and food festivals and wine shows, will occur in urban areas, while in various parts of the world we also find wineries and even vineyards that have now been surrounded by suburbs and urban sprawl. We hope that this research paper will help us to fill in breaches and will help to facilitate a forum through which added work can be taken to next level so the wine business grows tremendously in lucrative and sound profit margins and revenue. If this industry is given proper promotion then it will yield for us to learn more about wines, grapes winemaking, and many other things. It is quite intriguing for those who love wine eternally. This will embark in mind that whenever we pull the cork from the bottle, we go back on our travel memories and we become wine tourists all over again. This must make our future experiences more enjoyable which creates a win-win situation for all, the tourists, for the suppliers, for manufacturers, and the government.