Starting next November, Portugal will have a website with all the existing wine tourism offers – as it was announced today – as the 10th International Congress of Wine Tourism and third of Europe begins in Torres Vedras. The project Enoturismo.pt is being developed by the Association of Portuguese Wine Municipalities (Associação das Rotas dos Vinhos de Portugal – AMPV) and by the Association of Portugal’s Wine Routes.
“There isn’t a source with an integrated offer of wine tourism and we want to correct this flaw, with an offer by county and wine region, with everything that is related, such as wineries, museums, restaurants or hotels”, José Arruda, Secretary- General of AMPV explained to Lusa.
The website will help to “promote national wine and gastronomy and bring more wealth to the territories”, he stated.
The tool will be launched on November 7 at the Congress of Wine Tourism in Portugal (Congresso de Enoturismo de Portugal), in Peso da Régua, in the district of Vila Real.
A study carried out in 2016 by the University of Aveiro for those associations – which Lusa had access to – concludes that wine tourism is growing in the country: wine producers increased from 11.4 million in 2005 to 19.1 million in 2015.
The Tourism of Portugal is also creating a platform dedicated to the external promotion of wine tourism.
The wine tourists spend an average of three nights and generate revenues that in 2005 were 1 million euros and, in 2015, 1.9 million euros.
The data were collected from operators with activities related to wine tourism in territories where there are wine routes.
Ivane Favero – president of the International Wine Tourism Association, which organizes the congress – told Lusa that, throughout the world, there are companies for which wine tourism represents 70% of their turnover.
“There are cases of companies that sell all their wines over the counter to tourists and bill with the sale of experiences – which has to be encouraged – as when production is not so good (production that only happens once a year) they can counterbalance the business with wine tourism, which can be worked every day”, he highlighted.
In Torres Vedras – within the district of Lisbon – it will be announced the 5th World Wine Tourism Conference 2020 in Reguengos de Monsaraz – in Évora district – where the first World Wine Tourism Charter is planned.
The congress brings together today and on Friday about a hundred participants, such as businessmen, association leaders, mayors and wine-related technicians.
