Wine and tourism can hardly be called a new concept. For years, people from all over the world have made pilgrimages to European regions that produce wine. Think of the steady stream of people to Bordeaux; the still-hot focus on Tuscany, where savvy wine estates have even built fancy hotels.
Here in the United States, Napa has become the major American tourist and business destination.
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One of the Washington Wine Tourism |
Business is booming. Wine travel means money to the local community as well as to the wineries.
Washington Wants a Piece of the Action
Don Anderson is Professor of Tourism and Hospitality Management and director of the World Tourism Management Center at the University of Calgary in Canada. With colleague Marc Rheaume (a hotel professional and wine lover) he is writing "Wine Country Visits", a business-oriented book about wine travel, business ventures and tourism destinations.
For the past few years, Anderson and Rheaume (as well as Donald Getz, another Calgary professor who is writing a more introductory book on the wine tourism experience) have been traveling around the world to investigate the links between wine and tourism.
In early 1998, Anderson found himself in Washington state on his way back home from research in California. He contacted Kris Watkins of the Tri-Cities Convention and Visitor's Bureau. They bonded. Watkins saw the potential of promoting the wineries of the Tri-Cities area as a marketing tool for her region. She hired the Canadians to lead a wine tourism workshop.
The first workshop "Wine Tourism Forum: the Outlook for Tourism in Washington's Wine Country" was held in Tri-Cities (the collective designation for the Washington cities of Pasco, Kennewick and Richland) November, 1998. Steve Burns, Director of the Washington State Wine Commission says "We were shocked and surprised that the two industries had never really spoken, so we scheduled a second retreat with these Canadian guys and it was at that meeting we agreed to create the Washington Wine Tourism Task Force. A second wine tourism workshop--called "Perfect Partners"--was held in Yakima June 1999.
Washington's Wine and Tourism Program
The Washington Wine Tourism Task Force is made up of five wine professionals and five tourism professionals, each appointed by their respective industries: Tom Cottrell from Washington Hills Winery; Vicky McClellan from Seven Hills; Karen Mack from Chateau Ste. Michelle; Lisa Anderson from Columbia Winery; Steve Burns of the Washington Wine Commission; Robin Pollard, Washington State Tourism Director; Jim Peerman of Eastside King Country Convention and Visitors Bureau; Kathy Coffee of the Yakima Convention and Visitors Bureau; Kris Watkins of the Tri-Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Molly Hancock from Restaurants Unlimited.
The Task Force meets quarterly. Earlier this summer, the Task Force went on a fact-finding mission to California to visit with tourism and wine folks in Livermore, Napa and Sonoma Valleys to see what was being done in California. Steve Burns says, "While all of the people that we spoke with had interesting ideas, we were surprised to find more questions than answers. We went down there to borrow all the answers from them! And instead, they kept asking us questions."
In June, the Task Force hosted a trade show for travel agents in greater Seattle area. More than 100 agents showed up to taste wine and hear about tourism ideas for Eastern Washington.
This summer, "black boxes" will start appearing in tasting rooms, hotels and restaurants around the state, for the purpose of soliciting from tourists such personal data as where they came from, what they are doing in Washington State, etc. to get a benchmark of tourism data to better entice more tourists to visit in the future.
The next thing that the Task Force will tackle is a statewide directional signage program for wineries and other wine-related tourism stops throughout the state.
The Interface between Tourism and Wine Promotion
The Washington State Department of Tourism and the Wine Country Convention and Visitors Bureaus have gotten involved in wine events as a result of the Task Force, so there will be local and statewide tourism information available at all the programs the Washington Wine Commission sponsors: World Vinifera Conference, Taste Washington (held in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, London, Toronto and Vancouver), and all barrel tastings and promotional events in Eastern Washington.
All State tourism media packets now include Washington Wine Touring Brochures and all media packets that are distributed from the Washington Wine Commission contain Washington State Tourism materials. Since the inception of the Task Force ALL Convention and Visitors Bureaus in wine country have included wine photography in their creative imagery. One very progressive Convention and Visitors Bureau is the Eastside Convention Bureau, which has convinced its Conference Center to serve only Washington Wines. The Bureau is also running a tourism incentive program for travel agents called "Wine-ing for Business"--all travel agents and tour guides who book business within their region will be entered in a drawing where the winner will get a three-day, all expense paid, behind the scenes tour of wine country.
From the State's Department of Tourism perspective, Robin Pollard says, "We are very excited about the potential, bringing two industries together with a common goal. Our ultimate goal is to see an increase in visitor spending, which will ultimately help create new jobs. This effort is an excellent example of how two industries can work together to raise awareness of Washington's desirability as a travel destination to wine regions. As more people visit and spend money, it helps support the jobs to sustain that desirability."
Who Else has Taken a Similar Approach?
According to Don Anderson, "Australia and New Zealand are the other hot-beds of development, the other wine and tourism marketing-oriented regions." Wine Tourism Conferences set up by the Australian government were held in 1998 and 1999 (with another large one scheduled for 2001). Anderson says that Australia in particular boasts a strong national strategy for wine tourism.
What Anderson says he likes about Washington's approach is that it's pro-active. "Napa is reactive," he claims, and marketing more to meeting planner and business travel, not the wine tourist. He sees Washington's efforts as agritourism, with strong technical assistance and funding from the State government. "Washington sees the need for agricultural and rural support," Anderson says. He's excited about Washington's efforts because he thinks the state has the right combination of ingredients for success:
• Quality wines
• A different wine experience from Napa and Sonoma
• A critical mass of wineries
But why is Anderson really so involved with Washington's efforts? He gets excited about this one. "Think about it: This has the potential to include Canada's Okanagan region as an extension of a Washington wine visit!" National loyalties do run deep. wbm
