Ep. 953 Emerging Trends In Gastronomy And Wine Tourism | wine2wine Business Forum 2021

Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. This episode is brought to you by Vinitally International Academy, announcing the twenty fourth of our Italian wine Ambassador courses to be held in London, Austria, and Hong Kong, from the twenty seventh to the twenty ninth of July. Are you up for the challenge of this demanding course? Do you want to be the next Italian wine Ambassador? Learn more and apply now at viniti international dot com. Talian Mind Podcast, a wine to wine business forum twenty twenty one media partner is proud to present a series of sessions highlighting the key themes and ideas from the two day event held on October the eighteenth and nineteenth twenty twenty one. This hybrid edition of the business forum was jam packed with the most informed speakers discussing some of the hottest topics in the wine industry today. For more information, please visit wine to wine dot net and tune in every Thursday at two pm central European time for more episodes recorded during this latest edition of wine to wine business forum. Okay. We're going to get started. It's eleven fifteen. It is with my great pleasure. We're going to kick this off, kick, this session. This is kind of my clubhouse ladies. I've met both of these ladies on clubhouse. And it it it's kind of fun to, like, meet them in person. And I'm going to just, have Renee introduce Urbazza and and herself. Well, hello, everyone. I know this is gonna be a really fun topic everyone to get into today, looking at trends in Italian wine tourism. And, Roberto Garibaldi has done a lot, everyone. This woman has written the report on gastronomic tourism in Italy. She's also the president of the association of a of, gastronomic tourism in Italy. She advises the Italian minister of tourism, Massimo Garavalia, and she is also on the board of directors for the food travel association and the board of directors for the Advisors of World Gastronomic Institute. Honestly, the list goes on. This woman knows pretty much what you need to know about tourism and looking at it from Italy, but also from a world's perspective. So I'm so happy to introduce Roberta Kibaldi. Thank you very much. It's really a pleasure to be here. Thank you for the invitation. And then we'll I will present you some datas today and some trends. And so this is, the cover of, the work that we publish every every year and then report on gastronomy tourism, in Italy. And, we use the same methodology, every year. And so we see ear after year, the growing of the interest of the tourists, related to, gastronomy and wine, in, as motivation to travel. And so we can see, for example, in two thousand sixteen, the Italians that did a tour with this main proposal in the last three years were the twenty one percent. And in the twenty twenty one, we are fifty five percent of the Italians did, a journey with this main purpose. And, this bring Italy at the level of the most important international countries because, received the data that we collect as a word for the travel association, every four year. We see that, in the north of America and Europe, we are around of forty five percent of the tourists that did a a journey with these main proposed in the last two years. And, we can see, a more important number of people that did this kind of, of a journey in, China and Mexico, for example, in that countries, the motivation is higher, than here. And, now we go in deeper with some datas related to wine tourism, in Italy, And, here we can see the number of wineries that the Italians visit while they travel with this main motivation. They wine tourism and, the gastronomic tourists confirm them as multipurpose, travelers. They are very active and they want to live, different time on the of experiences while they travel. And so if they choose to, to to do a tour, a journey with this main purpose, they usually visit, sixty four percent, one or two wineries. And, for the twenty six percent from three to five wineries, we can see an increasing number of wineries that's, the tourists visited in the last two years, plus seventy percent. And, this is a signal that, now the tourists want to go more in deep in the knowledge of the sector, and that is a very interesting number. If we analyze the number of wine tourists in the world of food and, and beverage tourism, we can see a decrease of the number of the wine tourists. But that is because the people want now to leave different kind of experience. They want to go, to different kind of producers from cheese, to vegetables producers. They want to go festival, they want to go to see the production of pasta or to chocolate or so on. And so the the the number of tourists increase and, obviously, in the total of this kind of tourist, the number of, you know, tourism, degree degrees, but it's just related, to the total of the tourists that move with the this motivation. Instead, the number of tourists that want to leave these experiences increase year, year after year. And which are the best, the more desired, kind of wineries, but the tourists who want to live, want to visit. It's interesting. We know some trends. It's very interesting to see along the presentation, the number of tourists that, give us a positive, interest related to the different items. Because we can see that we have really a fantastic numbers for every item that we analyze because now the tourists really want to leave these kind of experiences in the in the wide range of different experiences. And, for example, the most desired, kind of wineries, from the Italians are wineries in historical buildings. And we can see, seventy, sixty seven percent of all travelers love to live, these kind of experiences and seventy two percent of the on of the the gastronomy tourist and plus seven percent of interest. And here, we have some examples of these kind of wineries that we have, in Italy. We have historical buildings that are wineries quite in all our country. The second, most desire kind of wineries are family wineries, and so it you can see the numbers And, there is a an interest of live like a local to meet the people. And so the the tourists love, to find, a friendly situation. And so they love to visit the family wineries. At the third vendor here are some, examples. At third place, we have a well known wine producing places with renowned production. Then this arrive after family wineries. And, after this, we have modern designer winery, architect, architectural, buildings. And here, we can see forty six percent of interest and fifty three percent of interest. So the interest is really very high in all these items. So here, you can see them all together. So you can see, how they are in a in a in the score. Which are the most important factors that influence the disease of a wine destination or food destination. The first, at the first place, we can see the landscape. The landscape is the most important factor for the tourists. And so it's important to preserve the, landscape and all the actions that are done in this way are wonderful. And, surely working in rural areas, we preserve the landscape is something that go, together. At the second place, we have the culture of the destination. And then after this, we can find all of the items related to food and wine. But the most important thing is the landscape and the culture. And, we'll see in, the future slides, the relevance of that of the culture that is that we can find in every situation. We what happened after COVID happened that the tourist is more and more demanding. This is the previous slide. And, it could be interesting to analyze these slides compared with the datas that we collected two years ago. And we can see an increase increase numbers for every item because the tourists now want quality at all. And, they don't want to find the situation that are so and so. They, it was not possible to travel for a lot of time. Now we want to to to travel, but we want fantastic places. And so, the tourist is more and more demanding. He wants quality everywhere. And he wants to find innovation. He wants to leave new experiences. When we did the these are what we call psycho culinary profiles. We define it this. We've ordered food travel association, and we analyze this in different countries of the world. From a lot of times. And so if we analyze the datas of two thousand sixteen, we saw at the first place the theme of authenticity. Now, authenticity is really important because it it is at the second place, but it not the most important item. Two years ago, we saw the eclectic tourist that was the first one and now innovative. What does it mean? It means that, the tourists want to leave different kind of experiences and new experiences every time. And so it's very important when we, prepare the author of the experiences of our winery to give something new every six, twelve months because of the tourists want more and more, new experiences. And the challenge is to find a balance between innovation and authenticity. This is what we really need to do in a a future, in in the next, months in the next year. Because if we analyze this data, Italian tourists say that, the wineries tend to offer similar experiences to visitors. And we see that these datas are increasing after year. We can see more six percent than two years ago. Then, it's quite a long time that we we we speak and I think that everyone understand that now we have to offer different kind of experiences, but what that sector is doing is not enough because the tourists feel more and more of this that, the, business are too similar. And this is what we really needed to do. We have to to create a difference differentiation between the experiences that the different wineries offer. And so every winery analyzing his history, his resources, the landscape, the place, the situation, as to define his own stories and his own experiences. And this is the the really the challenge that, it is necessary to change something to to offer something different every, six, twelve months, to satisfy a more demanding tourist that want innovative experiences. And now I collected the datas related of the different kind of experience to understand which are the most desired. And so if if everyone, know about some of some trends, but I think it's interesting to see the datas because this show us, what the Italians think about the the different, kind of experiences, which are the most desired and how they move a year after year. And, the first thing to focus is the desire to know more about the culture, not only, tasting, but to know more and more and more. The Italians, but say, that they are interesting to know more is really high. And this is why it happens while they are on holiday, but why they are at home too. And we can see here the datas. And, we try to analyze that which are, in what kind, what can we use to, to speak about food culture. And, the Italian say it's interesting. All a different kind of, of, it can be through experiences, through menu, from local people, through specialized guys, through apps, and so on. Because it's just to define how we want to communicate, but it's necessary to con to communicate more about the culture of the situation. And, so here we can see data as I go quite quickly because you you can read the, by yourself. And, you can see some details about this. And, so, we can see which can be the new kind of experiences that we can propose. So the most desired in this year that we had a a COVID situation is the picnic. Seventy five percent of Italians, we love to do it in the wineries. And we saw, this year last year, a growing number of wineries that offer this, and the seventy five of Italians love to do it. And, art in the winery. Seventy five percent of the of the people will love to find events, or some proposals that combine gastronomy with art. And, the theme of sport of fitness of to be active is increasing too. Yeah. We can see. I would like to go hiking for or jogging in the viners forty seven percent of all travelers, fifty three percent of the gastronomy tourists. And, we saw different kind of experiences related to food. For example, dinner in the Vineyard. Here, we have more than sixty percent of Italians that will love to do these kind of experiences. And, for example, I have some experiences that, can, explain how how it's possible to combine in the better way, wine, and food, and we have a fifth around sixty percent of Italians that will love to do it. Vis it with a multisensory experiences. Here, you can see data's fifty, sixty percent of Italians that will love to do it. Really a huge number. So there is a lot, a lot of attention to all this kind of experience. One, theme that I love, a lot is the theme of edutainment and the possibility to have the gaming applied in the wineries. And, so, I think it's one of the most fun way to know something more. And more and more people love to do this kind of experience more and more adults use video games now. And, here, you can see the datas. More than fifty percent of Italians will love to do to find the entertaining opportunities such as escape rooms and treasure hunts for discovery local productions and receive. And so, for example, I saw an escape room relating to wine and food. There is in in Switzerland, one in Barolo last year. And so we started to see these kind of experiences. And, I saw some video games related to the production of wine This can be something that can be in improve, in the next years. Which kind of, new services, new places, that we can offer to the tourists. We saw in, the last year's new wine hotels growing and new hotels related to beer and food around the world. This is something that, the, Italian travelers desire, it's an experience with what they desire to live. In fact, we can see that only thirty two percent of the people did this experience, but fifty six six percent will love to because the innovation, the desire of innovation that we saw before, will touch the accommodation too. If for example, they love to do glamping thirty percent of Italians will love to do this kind of experiences, thirty two, three house hotel. And so we can, create innovation in accommodations too. Here are some photos of some wine wine hotels here in example of Glenping from Mexico and a theme that is growing is the elements of sustainability. And here we can see some hotels that define to to be more sustainable. And the tourists love to go in places that show that they are active in a different kind of sustainability. And, the theme of innovation will, can go, for example, in a places where to to to store and, the wine. For example, we have a case of wineries. This is an example in Italy and of sumerin wineries that are growing in a different kind of situation in the lakes in the sea and around the world. And, the new relation with gastronomy and wine and wineries is interesting too. And so, for example, I would like the wine the winery have a restaurant where I can go for lunch or dinner. More than seventy percent of the people say it's interesting to have it. And, we we spoke a lot about smart working these two years. And the Italians will love to have the opportunity to leave wineries as placed to have business meetings. And, we can see around fifty percent of interest. And so in the the theme of smart working new, the new business traveler and the new business meetings, the wineries can have a role in this situation. Surely, the theme of safety is important. And, we analyze what the Italians think about the actions that the wineries put in put in a in a in action to, to to preserve, the the the the safeness of the people. And then they more activities you put in action more than their they are happy. So, don't, think that this is too much. Perhaps they think that, it's not necessary why I asked them, the telephone number, the name, and so on. They lost to these kinds of things because they feel more safe. And then more activities that you put in action, more they, then they are happy. And, it's interesting to offer some, self guided guided visits so that you can do by yourself. You can see that more than sixty percent of Italians will love to do it. And, for example, in Spain, we have around, forty percent of wineries that offer this kind of experiences. And in Italy, we have only around ten percent And, this is something, interesting to to analyze. And, and in the situation that we live in this year's, could be something to improve we can have some, example. We are here. We have a michele carlo and Piedmont. They have an app to discover with wineries. I remember, Pomere. You have an app, and then you can go to to visit the the caves. And, so there are good examples about this. And, we can if someone did not offer this, this can be something to think of. Are you enjoying this podcast? There is so much more high quality wine content available for mama jumbo shrimp. Check out our new wine study maps or books on Italian wine. Including Italian wine unplugged and much much more. Just visit our website, mama jumbo shrimp dot com. Now, back to the show. And, one thing is, is the theme of food and wine hub, food and wine hub, so some places where you can have with the consortium of the wine in the center of rural areas to create some places where you can find a lot of services for food and wine tourists. And from there, go to this cover, the surroundings. And, we found that that the Italians will love to find this situation. I can offer you an example because this summer, I went to, Montalino, and I saw the new, moo, Museum of the Montalino. This can be an example of Aba, because there we can found three different museum, one related to wine, and other release related to ancient art. And, they have a big shop where you can rent a bicycle. You can, book experience in the wineries. You can, buy the wine. You can taste the wine. And it's a good example of the hub. Next week, we'll go to Porto. They created in, the wow experiences. So they six museums altogether, one related to wine, and, a wine hotel, and, in a hub where you can start them the visit of the area of the winery area of portal. And this can be, something interest, to, to, to discover and to offer. Another theme that is growing is the theme of well-being. Now we feel that it's good, to to eat, to taste the food, and, but to know that this is good for our body. And so, we pay more and more attention related to this. And we can bring, this this word into the wineries, into the rural areas. And, we try to analyze and to test the different kind of experience and to analyze if the Italians love to do it. And you can see here we are more than fifty percent as usual of interest related to these kind of experiences. And, for example, I would like to find opportunities and activities to restore myself, reschedule my daily habits and adopt a healthier lifestyle. I would love to find this in in wineries Yes. Around sixty percent. So we can find to this team and try to analyze how it's possible to, to develop because, we can offer some spa in the wineries we can offer, some activities related to gym, the yoga, yoga, track, tracking, and so on. And then it is possible to offer different kind of activities related to wellness. And, surely, we can more and more create activities that are that are linked with the participation of the tourist And, in in Italy, we had a problem with the, our, lows. And then it was not so possible to do, tourist harvest in the past. Now this is something that is changed. So are growing a lot. The number of activities related to this. We we know that there is an interest relating to bike, but always important to see the datas. We can see double of people that will love to do this kind of experience. So in two thousand nineteen, we had nineteen per percent of people that will love to do a tour in the wineries with the bike. Now in two thousand twenty one, after two years, we have thirty nine percent of Italians, but we love to do this kind of experiences. And so it's really an important trend. And, and then it's very good. All the destination that define it to offer these kind of experiences. And so, you can, create, I I present you an example of what happened in the United States. I think it's nice, because it's not only the possibility to rent the bike, but they created farm to farmer, to bike, farm to fork, with bike, And so they speak about, all of the tour is created, related to wellness. And in every stop, they will explain you the benefit of, the food is some information for your wellness, and you move with the bike. And so you can, you you can benefit with the mind and the body too. Sustainability than electric cars and, are something that is really interesting in the rural areas and optimize the logistic transportation of the wine to to, avoid to create problem of the with the the traffic in the problem of overturisma in the in the new world of sustainability in rural areas. This is an example of transportation related to train. And I don't know. Okay. The big theme is the theme related to sustainability. I wanted to check how many minutes I have to to do this to go in deeper relating to the theme of sustainability, then five minutes. Okay. So, perhaps, I don't show the slides because I will go, more in deep if I do it this way, but I'll just give you some information about the trends that emerge from our datas. Surely, sustainability is a a FEMA. We we speak about this in the last years. We so that the gastronomy and wine tourists is more sustainable than the general tourists. The gap, is, less high now because quite all the travelers think that sustainability is very important, but we have it, and the the for the food and wine tourism is something that is really necessary. And, it's the important for the wine and food tourists that have sustainability in, related, to, to to to the social sustainability to So it's important to do something for the community. It's important to do something uh-uh for a, to to be ethical. This is a we have an increasing interest related to this. And so in Italy, it's, for example, if, we can see that a lot of the the wineries are very active on sustainability. We have these datas because we are leader in Europe related to sustainability, but related to a sustainability in production, then it's very important to focus sustainability for the tourist services too. And then, to analyze all the process and, give sustainability, in all the steps of the offer to the tourists from the transportation to the dresses of a guide and, to, for example, the what we say to a tourist is that important, the theme of communication, We can see now in Skyscan, in booking, that, they give us information related to the actions that, the, transportation or all the hotels do relate into the sustainability. Then it's very important to communicate it, to the tourists. Don't be shy. Say all the actions that you are doing and show it. It's very, very important because the the tourists prefer to arrive in a winery that are active on this. And so put in all your communication information about this. This is an example of one of the Italian wineries that have this at the interest of the gate. Or here is an example instead of, a winery in Spain, where they have a stop, in the experience of a tourist to show the actions that they, did how they impact, on the production of energy. It's interesting to to give information during the touristic tours related to what you are doing. Don't forget to communicate sustainability. That was really awesome. Thank you so much, Roberta, for giving us all this wonderful information looking specifically at Italy. Please feel free. We're gonna do a question and answer portion. Does anybody have any questions to kick this off with? Alright. I'm gonna I'm gonna start with mine then. So coming from North America, there are a lot of really interesting, tours that happen when you go into wineries. Now that we have all this data, How many Italian wineries are starting to put forward new experiences for people that come in terms of, gastronomic and wine based tourism? We saw an increasing number of experiences that grow in the last two years because, in it, Italians are very creative. And then we have to find new ways to discover with wineries in COVID time. And I think in, a bad situation, something new happened and something that can we develop more and more in the in the future years because we saw an increasing number of different experiences. I spoke about a technique. I spoke about the dinner in the wine yard. All these kind of activities developed a lot in the last two years because it was necessary to leave more the outdoor experiences. And this is, something that, people love to do this. And and so this can be something that will go on, and we can, we can develop the we can go on with these activities and develop something more. So, we the creativity that we show in this, two years. We don't have to forget it. We don't have to go back. I mean, we have to go to to give more and more new ideas and, go and hide with this, I think. That's awesome. Thank you so much. We have a question over there. Ask you, I know that the Italian wine industry was hit financially very badly during the COVID period. Is the government providing any sort of funding to help vineyards do all of this new development? Is there money available for vineyards that want to actively expand and grow? The Italian ministry of tourism, the the ministry of agriculture, think that, this theme is, relevant for the future of our tourism. I think is the the astronomy tourism, and they know tourism is very important for the new world that that where sustainability is the main focus. And, we have, to, bring the people out, to avoid over tourism. And then, we have to work more with the scenarios. So this is gastronomic tourism, wine tourism, is something very important to achieve this objective. And that this is why the government defined, to work on this team and to create some strategic clients, and related to this. And then we'll go in action with, to to create some, groups that will work on this topic. And, with the, Italian regions, with the association and, with the experts. And so we work on this. And then, we have a we will do We go in the different three Italian regions next year to speak about the topic and to work with the local stakeholders on this. And we put in actions, some, the ideas that the stakeholders will give us. And, the focus point will be the last point of this, work will be the UNWT offer related to wine and wine that will be next year in Italy in, and then at the end of September. And so this will be an important here for, Italy related to this topic, and we want to do a lot of work related to this and to help the sector. Thank you for that great question. Do we have another question from the audience? Well, of course, I always have a question. I have one too. So, yes. So my question is actually a little bit more institutional in nature. So first of all, congratulations. She's now the president of this, what we call the Agencia, it National in Italian. First of all, what does that mean? What does this agency actually do? And now, of course, I'm very wine centric. So how does it help the wine industry? And how do you work with the wine industry in particular? Mhmm. Yes. I'm the CEO. The president is Georgup unmutry, and that we work CEO president. Very well together. Yes. But it's important for him. And, in, we the focus of, national border related to the promotion of Italy is to to, to to promote the to to work on the major of Italy and to promote it, all over the world. And now, we had so critically years related to tourism, and it's a very important moment now because we have to go in action, to to start again the the two the twoisma. I'm very happy about this summer because it was a great summer related to, for a lot of destination. We had the problem with the, art cities, and we have a problem with the travel agencies as a tour operator, but, a lot of the sector, at a a good summer. So we have to to work a lot, and we hope that COVID is really finish. We hope everything everyone will hope this and, and so we started to work and surely, if the the ministry and the president, of any defined to have me in that role because they think that, food and wine tourism is very relevant relevant for Italy, and this is why we define, to do this strategic work that I said before. And so, we'll we'll really work harder this year. To with, all the reasons that all the situations, all the stakeholders, because it's something that we can do all together because it's not something that, can be defined only, from, from any, but it has to do a big work that we have to do altogether to develop more and more this asset because, we really love this and we know that how it is, how it is important for Italy. And we know that Italy is recognized from outside for the landscape, for the art cities, for the culture, and for food and wine. But is there since the pandemic? Is there a a shift For example, because in the past, Italy was so heavily reliant on, for, for example, the American tourism and the Asian tourism. And clearly, now the tourism is more localize, at least from the European countries. So are are the agencies like enet, of the situation? Are there consciously strategically focusing more on the your Pinterest for Italy? Yes. We we work, they work because I I arrived last week, to develop in the tourism in in in Europe and, actions related to tourism, domestic tourism. But, if we analyze our sector food and wine tourism, Italians love to do why, food and wine tourism in Italy. But we did this research in a lot of countries in the world with the work for travel association, and we saw the same for the other country. So it's in Italy, seventy five of Italians did food and wine tours in Italy. And it's increasing the number of Italians that we love to do in Italy and outside, but maybe they love to do this kind of tour in Italy. And then developing, food and wine tourism. It's good for Italians. And it's good for the European, and it's good for China and United States. For example, China is ever the highest number of food and wine, food, more than wine, but tourist in the world because they are very, very they put a lot a lot of attention related to this kind of travel and this kind of experiences. And then it's an interesting theme for domestic European and international. And then we have to to create different experience because, we have to analyze and define different between the the tourist, but it's if we develop interesting experience, this will we we'll have a lot of stars to, to to show and to present, our best practice. I have a one final question unless anybody else in the audience has it. Alright. So my last question is also a question that's based around a little bit of North American thought processes. There's a lot of moments for Agra for why winery based tourism that creates photographable, shareable moments. I know influencer work and social media is not necessarily as big of a touch point in Europe as it is in North America, but are there any Is there any push to kinda create those very shareable images and videos in terms of looking at this type of tourism? Yes. We know the the influence of, of the the the web, the social, and to create this these these places, you know, the wineries. In my mind, now you have a a a winery on the, Gardaleq that created this, Instagram points, a lot of very nice inter Instagram points in the wineries, and they did a great work of this. Yes. It's I think it's something that, everyone now that, the the wineries and More of the food producers, have to work to create, the possibility for the tourists to visit the wineries and the food production site sites safely. And, don't create problems with the people who work there. We have a problem related to the law because, it's not, in some places, it's not possible to go to stay. And, but it's interesting to see and to be active in production. And, and we have to create a situation where we can, have good Instagram points. And then there are a lot of situations that we have to to study and to define. And, it's quite easy if you have to to create a new production production site because you can think and create it, giving attention to all these points. But, when we work with a a a winery production side that was created a lot of years ago, it's not so simple. But it's, everyone organized in a better way could be interesting to, to have a possibility to have a new spaces studied for the tourists that is, truly the the best situation. We have to find if we can, in the future, think something related to this topic, because, there are different point of action, the, of attention that we have to to to to define. But we'll work this year on this. Fantastic. Thank you very much, and thank you very much for this. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to close-up this term, round of applause for robusta Garibaldi and Renee Saratsa. Thanks for listening to this episode of Italian wine podcast brought to you by Vineetli Academy, home of the gold standard of Italian wine education. Do you want to be the next ambassador? Apply online at benetli international dot com For courses in London, Austria, and Hong Kong, the twenty seventh to the twenty ninth of July. 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