First-Ever Wine Tourism Day This Saturday

 

Saturday, May 11 will be the first-ever Wine Tourism Day http://www.winetourismday.org in North America.  Wineries, restaurants, hotels, and wine-related businesses throughout the U.S., Mexico and Canada will offer special events to the public to promote tourism in the wine industry.

    

The idea came about last year at the Wine Tourism Conference in Santa Rosa,

California. The concept of designating a day to celebrate and encourage wine tourism originated in Europe and the first European Wine Tourism Day was held in 2009.  The European Network of Wine Cities set the second Sunday in November each year as the European Day of Wine Tourism.

The U. S. has over 7,500 wineries located in 205 American viticultural areas. There are 40 appellations in Mexico, and 38 authorized wine appellations in Canada.  And in each of these regions, visitors that come for the wine are also looking for lodging and restaurants to enjoy during their stay.

Wine Tourism Day events range from free wine tastings, to special wine dinners, to behind-the scenes cellar tours at participating wineries.  Many wine regions have exclusive deals at area restaurants and hotels.  Organizers see it as the perfect way to promote wine country visitation.  To see what events are planned in your area, visit http://www.winetourismday.org/events.

Taking part throughout the country are wineries, winegrowers associations, state wine groups, city and state visitors bureaus, industry boards, chambers of commerce, tourism offices, wine trail associations, grape grower and vintners associations.  Close to 100 events are scheduled throughout North America for May 11^th.

 

The event has been organized by Zephyr Adventures http://www.zephyradventures.com through partnership with Local Wine Events http://www.localwineevents.com, Touring and Tasting Wine Magazine http://www.touringandtasting.com, Wine America http://www.wineamerica.org, Wine Industry Network http://wineindustrynetwork.com, and the Wine Tourism Conference http://winetourismconference.org.

Wine tourism is important to wineries, restaurants, hotels, cities, and small communities throughout North America.  What a perfect way to celebrate the wine tourism industry, and the consumers that make it possible.

~ Joy