In an industry with increasingly tight margins, tourist experiences give wineries a break: there are some 300 in Catalonia that offer everything from tastings and visits to participating in the harvest
The Generalitat will allocate 12 million euros between this year and the next to position the community among the benchmarks in this field
A helicopter of Norwegian visitors lands on the farm. In loparta wine producer who owns the area, the image is not uncommon: for them it is already as important to produce a product as it is to attract to the place those who can consume it, want to know more about it and, in general, are willing to pay to live experiences around it. In the case of this Nordic group, they will try the vino and they will visit the space (like another 8,000 people the last year before the pandemic, according to data from the winery, which is on the way to equaling the figure), but nearby there will be those who, not content with just knowing what happens behind the scenes, will sleep among the vineyards from any other family or even will actively participate in your harvest.
According to himCatalan Tourism Agencyof the 620 wineries that Prodeca (a public company dedicated to promoting agri-food exports) has offices in Catalonia, approximately half offer some type of complementary activity related to wine. Altogether more than 800 wine tourism proposals y nine structured wine routes.
“Wine is a very long-term project, which is not sold very expensive and requires a lot of staff”, they contextualize from Oller del Masanother winery where the commitment to the tourist experience is more than evident: in its 600 hectares there are cabins, golf course, paddle tennis court, pool, Gym, restaurant y spaapart from the vineyards. For having, there is even meeting rooms and areas for companies to carry out activities with their workers there and for the farm to have movement also during the week. “Everything helps”, summarizes this family business, suggesting that, faced with increasingly fair margins, all this deployment involves resources that to a large extent allow the wine to continue to be produced.
“Now it is normal: the strange thing is that a winery does not do wine tourism,” they say from Albet i Noyaanother of the proper names that make up the wine region of Penedès. “For us it is the best marketing campaign: you explain what you do and why you do it directly to your target audience”, they deepen. In their case, the basic proposal for the client is that they taste their wine while visiting the vineyards and then complete it with an aperitif in the garden, but they have other things to do bike routes or private plans on special weekends.
Also for the cellar Avgvstvs Forvm wine tourism means branding your product. “It’s a way of getting to know wine and its history,” argue its managers, who organize sessions to graze wine with the feet, tastings and now recently, meals. In this warehouse located in The Vendrell (Tarragona) this set of activities represents only 10% of their direct income, but they assure that without them they would sell much less wine.
In addition, several of the companies consulted point out, that selling at home means keeping the entire benefit of the transaction.
Bet of the Generalitat
In fact, the interest in wine tourism goes beyond the wineries themselves. For the Generalitat it has also become a key segment. “The enogastronomic tourism – affirmed this summer the Minister of Business and Work, Roger Torrent—is a powerful alternative to sun and beach tourism to promote the arrival of visitors throughout the year and extend it throughout the territory”. According to their data, this visitor profile leaves more than three times the money of the average tourist. “Food and wine tourism has a multiplier effect beyond boosting restaurants and trade, insofar as it reinforces the international projection and prestige of reference productswhile offering new possibilities to small local producers and of craft food”, deepened the same public official.
So much so that his department will allocate this year and the next 12 million euros (8 of them from the fondos europeos ‘Next Generation’ and the rest directly from the General Directorate of Tourism) to promote initiatives that boost the sector: signage and infrastructure to encourage the purchase of local products, digital transformation of the fabric, training, creation of varied tourist packages and product promotion, among others.
As necessary as vintage
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“We have a very fragmented product, very diverse: there are some facilities in terms of wine tourism that are very advanced, others that are smaller, where the same winegrower he is in the vineyard, in the winery and makes the visits”, pointed out a few weeks ago the general director of Turisme, Marta Domenech, in an interview with the digital magazine Enoturista. “If we intend to make visits from Monday to Sunday we have to be able to take this leap towards professionalizationwe believe that taking care of the wine tourist client is an option as good and necessary as doing the harvest or taking care of the vineyard”, it launched.
Especially when the pandemic has triggered interest in this type of natural and outdoor activities among the local public and, also this year, it already coexists with an international tourist who is back. Because officially, just as these wine tourism wineries celebrate to conclude, the American tourist is back. “And this is the one that spends the most,” confesses one of them.