Wine tourism is worth 2.9 billion euros (+16% over 2023). Identikit wineries and wine tourists: spending is up to 400 euros, services and experiences are growing, but 76 percent of wineries lack employees.
The value of wine tourism in Italy continues to grow: now worth 2.9 billion euros, up from 2.5 in 2023 (+16%). The average expenditure of the wine tourist is up to 400 euros, including 89 euros for the purchase of wine and 46 euros for the tourist harvest.
It is precisely the tourist grape harvest regulated in 2023 and used by only 7 percent of wineries that can further boost wine tourism along with the services and experiences offered by wineries. A sore point, staff recruitment (for 76% of Italian companies, with a particular difficulty for wineries in the Northeast for 83%) and a greater demand for training desired by 79% of wineries.
National Wine Tourism Observatory 2024
This is in a nutshell, what emerges, from theNational Observatory of Wine Tourism 2024, now in its 20th edition, edited by Nomisma Wine Monitor and presented on Sunday, April 14 at Vinitaly, by the National Association of Wine Cities. A survey conducted among 261 wineries located throughout Italy, in municipalities associated with Wine Cities, which also involved institutional stakeholders throughout Italy.
“Innovation in wine tourism is the goal of the 2024 Observatory, which is confirmed as a fundamental tool for all wine territories and those who administer them. – emphasizes the president of Wine Cities, Angelo Radica -. Measuring and telling the value of Wine Cities with objective data; but also telling the value of the territories of Wine Cities through the identification of innovative projects activated by administrations in the territory. Observatory chronicles wine tourism through a survey of wineries and innovative, sustainable projects and new experiences, such as tourist grape harvesting“.
The sketch of wineries
41 percent of wineries are small with family hospitality, which is the main characterization of Italian wineries; 13 percent have innovative offerings; and 12 percent are wineries of historical, architectural and artistic significance.
Where can they be found? In 4 out of 10 cases, wineries are in areas far from major tourist flows (of these, 54.5 percent in the Northwest).
As a method of vineyard cultivation and winemaking practices used, wine from the wineries covered by the survey is 35% conventional, 24% sustainable, 23% organic.
Sales and turnovers
Among digital sales channels, the omnichannel strategy prevails for nearly 6 out of 10 wineries: 58 percent use e-commerce, with a forecast of 69 percent at the end of 2024; while it is at 14 percent wine club (33 percent end of 2024).
The total turnover of companies in 2023 reached up to 500 thousand euros for 55% of wineries, of which 26% were up to 100 thousand euros. But 21 percent are those with revenues from 500,000 to 2 mln euros; 11 percent from 2 to 5 mln euros; 6 percent from 5 to 10 mln euros; and 7 percent from 10 to 25 mln euros.
31% of the wine was sold abroad, 69% in Italy.
Services and experiences offered
Seventy-one percent of wineries are those that offer year-round tourist accommodation and 18% of those that do so only during certain periods.
In 2023,” the Observatory points out, “for the share referring to wine tourism alone, 57 percent of wineries have turnover up to 50 thousand euros with an additional 6 percent those with turnover up to 100 thousand euros.
But who is the wine tourist? It comes from abroad (86%) and particularly from Germany (23%), the United States (21%), but also Austria (9%) and even the United Kingdom (4%).
The average wine tourist spends up to 400 euros: 89 euros to buy wine; 128 euros for overnight stay, 39 euros for winery tasting, 46 euros for tourist grape harvesting and other experiential activities, with 47 euros in other expenses including catering.
Thirty-eight percent of businesses use tourism booking portals, but for 80 percent, direct contacts (website, telephone and newsletter) remain the primary form of booking.
Booming wine tourism also due to the increase and evolution of wineries’ offerings: in the 2021-2024 period, 35% of wineries that do wine tourism are equipped with green relaxation areas (+12% compared to the 2016-2019 three-year period); 13% have children’s entertainment (+7%); for catering, 56% offer chopping boards and cold dishes (+25%), while 23% have an equipped picnic area (+15%).
More experiences for wine tourists
Experiences for the wine tourist have grown: 37 percent organize lunches and dinners in the vineyard (+27 percent); 80 percent guided tours of the winery plus tasting (+22 percent); 60 percent thematic tastings (+24 percent); and 46 percent educational experiences in the vineyard (+18 percent). Also on the rise are experiences that make starring the wine tourist: the proposed cooking workshop and wine pairing (17 percent); growing to 15 percent the tourist grape harvest (+10 percent); then there is no shortage of sports activities from walking (21 percent); to bike tours (17 percent) and jogging in the vineyard (10 percent); but also cultural offerings such as visiting places of interest (33 percent) or museums (18 percent).
Forty percent of companies have started or want to start new wine tourism proposals by 2024.
The tourist grape harvest
And after the 2023 regulation of the tourist grape harvest, thanks to the Wine Cities and National Labor Inspectorate protocol, 7 out of 10 wineries are aware of its existence, and of these, 19 percent are fully aware of it. The tourist grape harvest, however, is still an untapped opportunity as only 7 percent of companies have taken action in 2023 while 34 percent want to offer it to their customers in 2024.
Among the investments made by wineries to publicize their accommodation offerings, 80 percent invested in marketing and social promotion and 81 percent participated in industry events and fairs; while 69 percent invested in agronomic innovation as well as facility connectivity and 68 percent in farm structure improvements.
Communication strategies
Promotion activity is growing among wineries: 98 percent say they have their own website. About 25 percent of those who have their own websites say they have a section specifically dedicated to sustainability. Among the tools used, 94 percent of wineries have a presence on social media (Facebook-Instagram); 39 percent say they have their own newsletter; while 41 percent say they are subscribed to a local tourism promotion portal and being active on social media is considered useful and very useful for 80 percent of wineries. In addition, it is used (very 47 percent and fairly 32 percent) the brand of the area to which it belongs not only to strengthen the identity of the winery but also to highlight points of interest and events in the area.
Wine tourism attachés and training
Some suffering, in terms of those employed in wineries and wine tourism. There were 76 percent of wineries that found it difficult to recruit staff in the 2023 – 2024 biennium (Q1). The average number of employees is 14 per company and 2 those involved in wine tourism.
Actions to search for tourism reception staff increased from 32 percent in 2023 to 30 percent in the first quarter of 2024; with high difficulty in finding staff: a lot for 28 percent of companies; quite a lot for 48 percent; a trend that affected all of Italy, although the area where the greatest difficulty in finding staff was found was the Northeast for 83 percent.
So where to find the staff? For 1 in 2 wineries, the role of hospitality institutions is indispensable. In addition, Wine City is creating a training school on wine tourism for wineries in order to broaden skills in management and promotion, a very useful initiative for 79 percent of wineries, where the following should be taught: Foreign languages (94 percent); Wine and territorial marketing (79 percent); but also Technical skills (agronomic, oenological) about wine (71 percent) and Digital & social media communication (66 percent).
Read also:
Focus on wine tourism in Italy – DoctorWine
