site.btaFrom Industry to Industry Project Presented at UN Tourism Global Conference

The From Industry to Industry project was presented by Gergely Szolnoki, Professor of Market Research at Hochschule Geisenheim University, Germany, during the second day of the at the 9th UN Tourism Global Conference on Wine Tourism in Plovdiv on Tuesday.

The results of the project are based on a survey conducted among over 300 wineries from all over the world, with the aim to summarize data on global trends in wine tourism. "We provide information on the current situation and good practices," Szolnoki said.

He stated that the first group of wineries that were surveyed are those that do not offer wine tourism, for which there are mainly two reasons, namely lack of time and staff at smaller wineries. Despite their inability, many of these wineries are considering investing in wine tourism in the future, the professor pointed out, adding that the activities offered as wine tourism are mainly expressed in tastings, cellar tours and plantation tours, as well as organizing private events in medium and large wineries.

Another aspect that was analyzed within the project was related to the number of visitors to the various wineries per year, which on average for Europe is 1,000 visitors, while for other continents is reaches up to 4,000 people, Szolnoki noted. However, there is a trend of increasing the number of visitors in Europe and decreasing the number of visitors on other continents, he added, pointing out that domestic visitors still play a more important role than foreign visitors. The age group that most often visits wineries is from 45 to 65 years old.