Best Practices in Wine Tourism - Presentation from London Wine Fair, 4th May 2016
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The document presents findings from a survey of 500 wineries across 31 countries, focusing on wine tourism and marketing strategies. Key insights include the importance of direct-to-consumer sales, effective social media presence, and enhancing visitor experiences to boost wine sales. Overall, 90% of wineries consider food and wine tourism essential to their business, highlighting significant opportunities for growth.
Best Practices in Wine Tourism - Presentation from London Wine Fair, 4th May 2016
- 1. Best Prac*ces in Wine & Food Tourism Trends in wine trade, tourism and social media around the globe Survey by Winerist Ta*ana Livesey @London Wine Fair 4th May 2016
- 2. Introduc*on This survey was conducted on a sample of 500 wineries located in 31 countries around the world. WINERIST’s scope was to understand wineries bePer and to assess their needs in the following areas: • Wine tourism needs and expecta*ons • Wine sales from trade, via tourism ac*vi*es and DTC (direct to consumer) • Business needs • Marke*ng needs including Social Media presence and priori*es WINERIST is an award winning travel website connec*ng a fast growing community of 200,000 wine lovers to over 2,500 wine tourism experiences in 100 wine regions. We work directly with wineries, hotels and tour guides to deliver the best possible authen*c travel service. We are changing the wine & tourism space for wineries in 3 ways: 1. A simple online wine tourism service to grow the number of visits to the winery 2. Marke*ng services to enhance their Social Media presence and customer engagement pre and post trip 3. Direct to consumer Wine Sales so they don’t have to rely on trade and access the end customer Our MoPo is: “People drink stories, not wine”
- 3. 500 wineries from around the world have their say UK 1% Austria 2% Canada 2% Portugal 2% Chile 2% Germany 3% South Africa 4% Australia 6% New Zealand 7% Spain 9% France 10% USA 13% Italy 29% Other 10% Geographical Split of Wineries 3 Wineries from Old World & New World had nearly equal representaMon in the survey: • 57% of wineries represent the Old World, with Italy (29%), France (10%) and Spain (9%) • 43% of the wineries represent the New World, with USA (13%), New Zealand (7%) and Australia (6%)
- 4. Business Size & Wine Sales Channels
- 5. @thewinerist What is the size of your business? Most winery business are small opera*ons with just 1-‐5 people • 53% of wineries are small enterprises of 1-‐5 people • <20% of wineries have more than 15+ people
- 6. @thewinerist Where do you export your wines? One FIFTH of wineries don’t export at all! This proves that DTC & local sales are important • ConMnental Europe & USA are in top 2: with 64% and 54% respecMvely of producers exporMng there • Over 50% wineries are exporMng to Asia and consider it an important new market • UK market occupies 4th place with 45% producers exporMng here (the UK is more compeMMve for the wine trade) • 22% of wineries don’t export at all!
- 7. @thewinerist What percentage of wine do you sell at your cellar door? Developing a good ‘cellar door’ experience is key to selling more wine! • Cellar door sales are on the rise • 20% of wineries sell more than 50% of the wine at the cellar door thus reducing markeMng costs for trade shows etc. • 55% of the wineries sell up to 20% of their wine at the cellar door • Wineries overall report they want to increase the porMon of cellar door and DTC wine sales showing need for invesMng in post-‐trip online ecommerce soluMons to sell wine
- 8. @thewinerist Do you ship wine DTC (directly to consumers) from the winery? DTC is important! This is in line with 89% of Wine Tourists repor*ng to buy wine when and aher travelling • 85% of wineries are involved in shipping wine directly to consumers • It’s important to have a good ‘cellar door’ wine tasMng experience – authenMc, with the winemaker /owner if possible • This is because “people drink stories NOT wine” so if they like you they will buy your wine too!
- 9. @thewinerist Do you have a wine club? Only 37% of wineries offer a WINE CLUB op*on • Wine Clubs offer a good incen*ve for people to become brand ambassadors, tell others about your wine, come and visit you • It’s a popular tool in the New World wine countries • Revenues from wine club members are higher in $/€ terms than from the average visitor • Set up costs are low but may need to invest in a POS / ecommerce soluMon
- 10. Wine Tourism
- 11. @thewinerist How important is food and wine tourism to your business? • 90% of wineries globally say Wine & Food Tourism is important for their business • 30% offer accommoda*on/ a restaurant service to create the full hospitality experience
- 12. @thewinerist How many wine tourists and visitors do you receive each year? 95% of wineries receive wine tourists! • 43% say that they receive less than 500 visitors > HUGE opportunity to grow the business subject to resources and facili*es • A small winery should target to receive between 500-‐5000 tourists a year • Some wineries receive over 200,000 visitors a year! • Only 5% of wineries receive no visitors at all > shows interest from consumers
- 13. @thewinerist What type of tas*ng experiences do you offer? Most wineries offer a combina*on of experience but should focus on those that bring MOST SALES • Most popular wine tourist experience is the “informal standing & tas*ng” with 75% of wineries offering it with the rest: • Sit-‐down tasMngs (67%) • Guided tours of vineyards (71%) • Meet the winemakers (66%) • Food & wine pairings (49%) • Another study found that seated tas*ngs generate at least a 21.8% greater average purchase per visitor
- 14. @thewinerist Who conducts the tas*ngs at your winery? Where possible the winemaker / winery owner should do the wine tas*ng visits • Wine tourists like to hear about stories and feel the passion about the wine directly from the winemaker (22%) / wine owner (44%) • This leads to increased wine sales post results and turns many of these visitors into “brand ambassadors” • Many wineries report lack of trained / permanent staff as an issue • To create an amazing service, wineries need to invest in their human resources • Find people with the ‘hospitality gene’ – with a smile on the face, ability to listen, to be curious, empha*c and be ready to go the extra mile • Think about when you hire the face of the business, will they be able to tell your winery’s story as passionately?
- 15. @thewinerist How much do you charge for tas*ng visits? 23% of wineries charge NOTHING for tas*ngs BUT this is to be avoided! • The sweetspot for a wine a wine tasMng of usually min 3 wines lasMng min 30 minutes is €5-‐€20 (37% of wineries) • 23% of wineries report offering FREE wine tasMngs • While this seems like a good idea to encourage people to come it doesn’t actually work that well • Tourists (especially Interna*onal tourists) expect to pay for service! • TIP: charge for the tas*ngs and deduct the fee if they purchase wine!
- 16. @thewinerist How important are the following methods of booking winery visits? 1 = most important > Email & phone unfortunately s*ll common place when taking reserva*ons for visits • Unfortunately when it comes to technology and online bookings – wineries are not so advanced! • 62% of suppliers don’t have a booking calendar • 17% use online tools; 34% use email and 39% use phone for bookings • This demonstrates that there is room for improvement! With simple online booking calendars, Point-‐of-‐Sale tools – wineries can minimise their workload by taking reservaMons online with tool such as Winerist for example <Most important <Least important
- 17. @thewinerist How important are the following for sales conversion during a winery visit? It’s all about WINE SALES! • Selling wine is the number one priority of most wineries (68% agree) • The tasMng fee is 2nd in place with 14% agreeing it’s most important for sales • Winery merchandise is in 3rd place with 12% agreeing it’s most important for sales • Restaurant onsite and food sales is least important mainly because 47% of wineries do not offer this service. For those that do a restaurant is 2nd most important source of sales with 17% thinking so. <Least important <Most important
- 18. @thewinerist Do you offer any addi*onal incen*ves at tas*ngs? The MOST effec*ve incen*ve at the cellar door is to offer the tas*ng free with wine boPle purchases • 45% of wineries offer free tas*ng or refund the fee with boPle purchase • This is a good strategy to get client’s details / email to retarget later as many repurchase / order online • Free tasMng with club membership: 17% • Discount on winery tours: 16% (not worth discounMng a €5-‐20 tasMng) • Coupon for future winery visits: 11% • 42% offer NO incen*ves
- 19. Ques*ons about Social Media & Marke*ng Ac*vi*es
- 20. @thewinerist How important is Social Media to your business as a marke*ng tool? 22% of wineries think that Social Media is not an important marke*ng tool! • FACT: 1 in 5 wineries are agnos*c to Social Media. This is not suprising but a concern! • 35% of customers use Social media for reccomenda*ons on travel & wine • Social Media is an effec*ve and rela*vely cheap way to promote your business online with the power of story telling and images! • It’s a powerful tool to engage in a conversa*on with your exis*ng fans but also aPract new ones and get their feedback • But it has to be done WELL!
- 21. @thewinerist What Social Media platforms do you use for business? Most wineries have a good mix of Social Media representa*on 1. Facebook is the most popular channel with 91% present 2. Twimer: 52% 3. Instagram: 40% 4. Linkedin: 27% 5. Youtube: 25% 6. Google+: 24% 7. Pinterest: 15% 8. None of the above: 7% Images (good ones!) are MORE important than text & video to aPract the customer’s aPen*on and easy to upload on facebook, instagram, twiPer.
- 22. @thewinerist How ohen do you post on Social Media? Most wineries do not have sufficient *me to engage with users on Social Media • 43% of wineries only post 2-‐3 *mes a week on social channels • 14% post every day • 23% post 2 Mmes a month • 11% post once a month • 8% do not post / use social media • To be successful on Social Media it is recommended to post almost every day and not just once a day on TwiPer; every other day on facebook & instagram.
- 23. @thewinerist How do you engage with customers during or aher their visit? 1 in 5 wineries does not do any post visit customer engagement thus missing opportunity to upsell • 62% of wineries report sending newslemers to their visitors – the % seems quite high so we assume campaign frequency is low • 52% ask visitors to follow them on social media sites – unless clients do it on the spot they may never do it • 20% of wineries do not engage with customers post visit > huge opportunity to improve and invest in a POS solu*on!
- 24. @thewinerist Do you have a blog? 80% of wineries don’t have a blog! • A Blog is a great way to tell your customers and fans what is happening in the vineyard, how is the vintage progressing, the harvest and tasMng notes from new vintages • It takes Mme to write and upload online but you can do it once a month/ every 3 months • People love stories!
- 25. @thewinerist What type of adver*sing do you do? 100% of wineries engage in adver*sing ac*vi*es! • ALL wineries do some paid marke*ng • Online: 69% • Print: 42% • Trade: 33% • Events: 71% • Online & events prove to be the most popular and cost effec*ve channels of adver*sing
- 26. @thewinerist What are the key areas you need help as a business? Trade, tourism and selling more wine online…. • Finding a distributor / entering a new market is s*ll the biggest pain & goal for 62% of the wineries • 52% want to get more internaMonal wine tourists to the winery • 38% want to sell more wine online • 37% want to develop a social media & online markeMng strategy • 31% branding and markeMng • 24% website update • 18% POS and booking soluMons • 15% training staff • Aher TRADE, tourism and online marke*ng strategies are key priori*es
- 27. CONCLUSIONS!
- 28. @thewinerist Conclusive Remarks 1. Wine Tourism ac*vi*es are an extra source of revenue & brand enhancement for 90% of wineries 2. To improve or start Wine Tourism ac*vi*es focus on providing a good experience and “tapping into one’s dreams” – This can be achieved by spending *me with clients, from mee*ng the winemakers, to differen*a*ng your tas*ng room with personalised touches and offering exclusive perks for people to come back / buy wine 3. Charge for your tas*ngs and provide incen*ves for clients to buy wine 4. Use Wine Tourism to your advantage -‐ increase the Direct to Consumer Wine Sales & Wine Club 5. Make it EASY for clients to find you online, to book & be ‘social’ on Social Media!
- 29. @thewinerist Winerist Contacts Want to know more about the Survey or about our Wine Tourism and DTC wine services? Get in touch! www.winerist.com ta*[email protected] +44 20 7096 1006