Wine and tourism

Wine tourism created 70 thousand new jobs across the Central European Initiative countries.

Why not start off by a riddle: Which type of tourism gives wings to one's thoughts, inspires to florid language, brings happiness and comforts heart, mind and spirit? This is, of course, no commercial exaggeration - we are talking about wine tourism, attracting a constantly growing number of holiday-makers. Tradition of touring the vineyards, wine-vaults, wine-cellars and vinoteques is the youngest sibling of the tourism industry. Its routes can be identified in the Europe second most significant viniculture paradise - Italy. The first wine route is nearly eightyyears old, yet the development of wine tourism dates only to the mid-seventies, when it became one of the favourite pastimes in Austria. Later on it spread to Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Czech Republic and in 1992 to Slovakia. Among the Central European Initiative countries the wine tourism is known in Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania.

The significance of the wine tourism as part of the tourism industry can be supported by the fact that the EU member countries founded the International European Wine Routes Association to co-ordinate co-operation of the participating countries. It is estimated that the wine tourism contributes to the overall EU revenues from tourism by 7%. According to the experts this figure will rise to 12% over the next five years.

Each of the five viniculture regions in Italy has created condition for wine touring. For example in the Marche district, central eastern Italy, with a high flow of visitors to the Adriatic Sea, an offer to spend an evening with a dry Verdicchio aperitif or to taste vintner's gastronomic specialities with a glass of red Rosso di Cordinaldo is a standard feature of the travel agencies' list of attractions.

An example of unifying interest of those entities active in the tourism in creating a complex offer of tourist attractions is the Ligura Riviera, Tuskany, wine route. The vintners contributed to the offer package by wine-growing areas producing brand name wines labelled by origin and quality (DOC). The historians added to the package the so called Etruscan route, as the region is rich in historical Etruscan sites. The hotel owners provided accommodation in traditional folk dwellings, the restaurant owners offer regional specialities, the villages opened craft shops, grape seed oil pressing shops, organise folklore feasts and festivals, the church administration holds open the churches with professional guides.

Carlo Fossi, one of the wine route authors, says, that due to such joint effort the attendance rate went up by 30 % for local and 10 % for foreign guests over the past seven years.

The number one in Europe in organising the wine tourism is Austria, in fact its largest federal republic, Lower Austria. The vineyards, famous for its Europe best Valtellina wine, are criss-crossed by roads suitable for hiking, cycling or car touring. They are lined by an enormous number of wine-cellars, wine terraces, road houses and small taverns, with a wine list comprising 50 to 350 various young, mellowed or vintage wines. Presence of typical folk crafts, gastronomy and history for each area is self-evident.

The present status is a result of joint efforts of the Österreich Werbung state agency in support of tourism, the Vino veritas Austria association, set up by the entrepreneurs engaged in viniculture and tourism, and by villages. In Lower Austria itself 50 villages are involved in wine and wine production related activities. The wine tourism is offered in a separate catalogue. It involves directly or indirectly 15 thousand people and the annual number of visitors is estimated to be 100 to 120 thousand.

While the Austrian wine tourism offer includes attendance in the wine grape harvest and processing at a vintner's farm as a holiday pastime, the Slovenian and Croatian concept of the wine tourism are exhibitions and tasting fairs and workshops focused on viniculture. The most numerous wine routes are leading across the Istrian peninsula with private producers offering their products. As a parallel to the French chateau, in Slovenia and Croatia there are vintners' family businesses, as a hallmark of return to the private vintner traditions. Their products are appreciated more by national than foreign guests. The wine tourism participates in the overall tourism in the former federal republics of Yugoslavia by 1,7 %.

In Hungary the attention of the wine lovers is concentrated in the Tokay production area, vicinity of Balaton and Eger. The viniculture tradition of Hungary dates 30 million years back - according to a grapevine twig, found by archaeologists in the Carpathians basin. The wine tourism tradition started in the sixties, when the tourist agencies included visits to the Eger cellars into their catalogues. It was in fact an attempt to recover the famous past of the Hungarian viniculture standard, with the top of its fame in 1850 - 1945. Over the past eight years there is a tendency towards a revival of private viniculture, small cellars seem to be emerging after a long rest, which contributes to a variety and flourish of a combined high-quality wine and Hungarian cuisine excellency as part of the travel agencies holiday programme. Hungary with 110 thousand hectares of vineyards, predestined to take a leading role as the East European number one country in viniculture, is planning to incorporate this aspect of the country attractions on the list of its tourism choices. 35 per cent of sight seeing tours already covers this aspect and it is the ambition of the Hungarian tour operators to increase this figure to 50 per cent.

The Znovín company in Znojmo, Bohemia, adds a dynamic edge to the wine tourism in the Czech Republic. This company switched over from originally a mail-order wine sale to an encompassing wine programme. The post - 1989 political development has opened the way to the wine production and consumption and Znovín Znojmo was the only one in the country to launch this unique tourism programme package. It includes a visit to a world unique cellar in Šatov, decorated by a single- handed war disabled veteran using a candle placed on his hat as the only light source. The work to decorate the cellar took him 20 years. The excursion continues to the oldest Moravian cellar in Šatov, followed by a visit to the world largest cross vault cellar, built 250 years ago by the Jesuit order, and into the Czech oldest vintage wine cellar in Jaroslavice.

The Znovín Znojmo set an example also for a number of Moravian villages and agricultural farms. Their activities have so far been only individual. The most exquisite offer is provided by the village of Čejkovice, offering weekly holidays at the local castle.

In addition to touring the Moravian vineyards and cellars the offer also covers a daily trip to a Lower Austrian wine capital of Poysdorf.

The oldest and so far the only representative of the wine tourism in the Slovak Republic is the Small Carpathians wine route, founded as a Slovak Country Tourism and Agrotourism Association initiative in 1992. In contrary to the Vintour Svatý Jur as the single most active participant, it covers today some 30 entities offering holiday accommodation and catering services, testing sessions in attractive traditional setting, visits to vineyards, ceramic workshops, vinoteques selling high quality Small Carpathians wines for private vinoteques, ranging from Bratislava to Smolenice. The strong point of the Small Carpathians wine route is the promotion of the activities along the Small Carpathians south slopes, which results in a double visitor attendance over the past five years, and even quadruple attendance during the high season of grape harvest.

Although there is no official wine tourism statistic source in the Central Eastern Initiative member countries, the specialists estimate that its participation in the tourism trade created at least 70 thousand new and not less than 100 thousand related jobs. These figures should double over the next 10 years.

By: Jozef Stiegel

Slovak Trade FORUM