More than 70% of Girona’s wineries offer wine tourism activities

2024-01-11 08:39:34

A study of theSchool of Wine Tourism confirms that a 48% of Catalan wineries offer tourist activities linked to wine. Of the 918 wineries distributed throughout, 451 can be visited and offer nearly 1,700 different proposals. The Wine Travel Observer analysis points to an “optimistic context” for a sector that has a long way to go. Researcher David Jobé points out that most wineries have made their debut in wine tourism in the last decade, and encourages wineries to go beyond conventional tastes of wine: “We need a more powerful and transversal wine tourism”. The research has been led by the Escola d’Enoturisme de Catalunya to feel the pulse of the sector once the effects of the pandemic have been overcome, which forced many wineries to innovate and open new spaces to attract customers. “Identifying that half of the wineries offer wine tourism is a fact that must be seen in one optimistic context and it must allow us to work with those who have not yet thought about this tourist key,” Jobé tells me. He assures that “wine tourism activity is just at P3 if we compare it to the age of the Denominations of Origin”.

By demarcation, the analysis shows that Barcelona has 415 wineries, 45% of which can be visited, while in Tarragona there are 382 and 47% offer visits. In the case of Gironahi ha 66 wineries with 73% of cases with wine tourism proposals. In Lleida, there are 55 wineries and 65% can be visited.

By wine region, the highest share of wineries that can be visited is in Empordà, with 78% of the 58 wineries in the territory. It is followed by Lleida, with 70% of the 50 wineries in the area, and Bages, with 65% of the 17 wineries in the region. As for the most powerful wine-growing areas, Penedès and Priorat, in the first there are 344 wineries and a wine tourism share of 45%, while in the second there are 198 companies and 51% can be visited.

The study has identified that, of the 451 wineries that offer visits, almost 70% are specific experiences and 30% limit themselves to saying that the doors of the business are open to anyone who wants to meet them. In the case of specific experiences, the analysis has counted 1683 across Catalonia, with a large number of stable proposals throughout the year and only 35% sporadic ones. “In this last area is where the sector needs to work the most, to squeeze the imagination and get customers to want to know more wineries”, says Jobé.

Regarding the types of activity, 27% of the offer that exists throughout Catalonia is focused on wine tastings. The price ranking for these basic tours with tasting is topped by Alella, with an average price of 26 euros per person. It is followed by Bages -21.3 euros-, Penedès -19.6 euros- and Priorat -19.5 euros-. At the bottom of the list are Tarragona -11.8 euros- and Conca de Barberà -9 euros-.

The report warns that there is a need to improve booking methods, details of activities and cancellation policies

The study warns that the sector should also be encouraged to offer proposals that include the discovery of the heritage closest to the wineries. He believes that it is necessary for wine companies to have a “more transversal” wine tourism offer, and he urges them to innovate with proposals that are also aimed at groups that seek family tourism or abstemious peoplesince they are areas in which little has been invested.

On the other hand, he warns that the wineries must improve several aspects in the management of reservations in order to retain customers and win new ones. In this sense, there are 62% of companies that work via email or phone to request an activity that requires further confirmation by the company, while only 23% allow customers to choose and book via web an activity with a specific day and time.

At the same time, the analysis detects a large number of cases in which the offer of activities it does not detail the products that will be known or the duration of the experience, and notes that in most cases they charge for the visit at the end of everything, which makes it difficult to sell bottles of wine when the experience ends because the amount skyrockets which customers have to pay.