MARKETING: Do Tourism and Wine Always Go Together?

Do Tourism and Wine Always Go Together?   I original thought that was a no-brainer, but after thinking it through some more and putting myself on the side of the winery owner, I have a new perspective.

A lot of wine tourism today centers around providing wine tasting and wine drinking experiences to people in packages. Get a room, get a limo or a bus and off you go.  With so much focus on wine touring packages worldwide, it would seem wineries are cashing in on the tourism industry……but a deeper look at this trend brings to light the “other side” of winery tourism.

At first blush it makes sense that any industry would do well to bring another source of revenue into their business, after all, doesn’t it make sense to diversify?  Many tourists are under the mistaken impression that all wineries in a given area are on the wine trail. Not so. There are many wineries tucked away that have chosen to stay that way - off the wine trail.

Think about it, most wineries exist to grow (or buy) grapes, make wine and sell wine.  Bringing tourists into the picture drastically changes the business model of the winery. There has to be infrastructure in place to accommodate the tourists; tasting rooms, staff, public restrooms, food, a gift shop, road access, parking, the list goes on and on.  All of this takes a significant investment of financial resources and time; an investment that does not always pay off because commercial business can be much more lucrative than retail.

Of additional concern to winery owners, is interestingly enough, their own lifestyle.  Winery owners have chosen this lifestyle because they want to own their own business and produce a good product. The dominant concerns are the grapes and the wine. Their time is already scarce enough without the added pressure of catering to tourists; the lure of being on the wine trail simply holds no interest to these owners.

In the end, the choice to bring tourism and public tasting into an existing business model will depend upon the goals of the owner.  Large corporations may choose to go the tourist route for branding purposes and they will have the financial resources to build the require infrastructure. Smaller, privately-held wineries more often than not, choose to avoid the wine trail for a variety of reasons. 

I think tourists would be surprised to learn how many wineries are tucked away and off the wine trail by choice.  To put that into perspective, according to the Washington Wine Commission, in Washington state (the U.S.'s 2nd largest wine producing state) there over 700 wineries with around 450 that have tasting rooms.  What do you think?

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