Changing Landscape of Wine and Food Tourism

1. Associazione Nazionale Città del Vino Cape Town 12 novembre 2008 Iole Piscolla, Direttore Centro Studi e Servizi Strade del Vino e dei Sapori d’Italia

2. L’ Associazione Nazionale Città del Vino Siena Castelnuovo Berardenga

3. WINE AND FOOD TOURISM: WHAT IS CHANGING? Wine and typical products tourism (PDO – Protected Designation of Origin - and food farming products) a Trigger for of the entire socio-economical structure of rural areas: an added value for employment and human capital growth. Wine Routes and Wine Cities a basin for wine and food quality, geographical areas with exemplary spreading capabilities of the major typical wine and food allied industries: the wine and food tourism. Wine and food tourism industry at the basis of economical development, for both the quality of territorial resources and the valuation process start up with the currently recognized and active Wine and Food Routes. Growing phenomenon 2,5 billions € annual gross turnover and 4/6 millions of enotourists: both the consciousness about the great potential of wine tourism for the development of the territory and the promotional activities carried out to identify arrivals and presences have grown up.

4. WINE AND FOOD TOURISM: WHAT IS CHANGING? Over 4 millions people are involved in the activities or areas of the 140 Italia • Wine and Food Routes, that is to say the industry of thematic tourism. Strenghts of the offer: the landscape quality and the quality of food items, wines and tipycal restaurants. Growing consumer independence in relation to choice and purchase circumstances in the wine and food tourism also: word-of-mouth appears to be the most effective mean for driving destination choice, though trade magazines still play an important role. As far as the trip organization is concerned, the “do it yourself” trendrules against organized proposals together with the internet, within a multi-means of information framework. As for the “basket” make-up (restaurants, stay, tours, etc), the new trend is “to undo” purchase proposals and reorganize all the elements in order to meet personal needs. Source:: Censis Servizi

5. Who is the enotourist? 1) 38% curious tourists, with scarce knowledge about wine. 2) 42% tourists with a mid-level knowledge about wine. 3) 20% wine experts. Age: 30-50 years-old in 55% of the cases, people younger than 30 years-old in decrease, people over 60 years-old stable (25%). Origin: long distance tourists (more than 300 Km) grow at a rate of 11%, while those moving from short distances (less than 100 Km) decrease by 10%. 51% of tourists are attracted by the wine and food offer; 49% by other factors. Social class: wine tourism still remains a prerogative of middle and upper classes, with an almost complete exclusion of the lower-middle class. In fact, upper classes show a growth (+ 3%), while middle and low classes appear to decrease(-2 e –1%).

6. Who is the enotourist? Couples “Tribes” Families Singles Average daily expenditure of the enotourist: currently 167€ - the expenditure for wine grows by 3%. The relation between the expenditure into the winery and the one on the territory remains unvaried: for each euro spent into the winery about 4/5 are spent for tourist purchase. Foreign enotourists: North Americans are coming back to Italy for wine tourism (+2%), but Germans, Austrians and Swiss are decreasing (-9%). If the quality of the offer is sufficient with regard to basic factors (wineries, restaurants, events), it is still mid-low with regard to more evolved services (wine shops, wine museum, routes, craftsmanship). According to operators,theunexpressed potential is big and is still to exploit. Among the funding channels used by municipal administrations, budget resources represent about 61%, while other regional funds amount for 22%. Role of the wine in the tourist development of the territory: Central Complementary Marginal

7. To be part of the network of a “Wine Route” means: For firms To Identify a relevant niche market and choose to enter it To develop the ability of working in a network To accept a self-regulatory code For guests To stay in selected structures To use targeted high-quality standard services To rely on expert and skilled personnel To get to know for real the product they consume

8. Some factors that determine the success of a Wine Route, the wine and food network and the related services: - The ability to stand out among other subjects and areas that offer wine and food tourist products, by strengthening local image and increasing the value of all the elements that make it up. - The ability to make the most out of the network. To liaise with the network enables each single member to improve constantly its quality standards, to create scale economies, to increase those partnerships that can be useful for all the member firms, with particular regard to the fields of marketing, specializing education and access to funding, and to strengthen and define the image of the territory. - The ability to ease the sharing among different levels of the tourism industry, from programming to the old and new operators of the territory, and keep it through time thanks to consistent and continuative behaviors, and the constant improvement of the system. - The ability of the members of the network to innovate, anticipating market trends. The network is made up of different elements that, according to market requests, gather to put forward new tourist proposals tailored for different targets: tasting week-ends, cuisine courses, high-quality farm holidays, biological farm holidays, the harvest rite, festivals and events, seasons, “the sea on your table”, itineraries between b&b and pastries, sport and nutrition and so on.

9. Some factors that determine the success of a Wine Route, the wine and food network and the related services: • To develop territorialmarketing, in its many aspects. • To encode communication courses/modalities/conditions and enforce good practices and accomodation models between qualitatively similar contexts. • To exploit the connection potential between a territory and its call, the chances of its services and offers to be used, its attraction potential with regard to the sustainabilitysubject. • To increase the value of those contexts where agricultural productive processes co-exist with the ability to integrate tradition with innovation, while safeguarding the quality and promoting the local socio-economical system, that is to say, the different meanings of tradition related to the local social fabric. • To urge the communication of the wine route - or of a wine and food route - by localauthorities and tourist offices. • To develop the value of the territory. • To foster events organization within the firm.

10. THE ROUTES NETWORK. THE “ARKEVINO” TOURIST GUIDE. The growing commitment showed by wine firms that invested consistent resources in research for quality and promotion of their products appeared to contribute significantly for making the “made in Italy” popular all over the world during the last ten years. These realities, together with an exponential growth of non-hotel middle-high quality structures and restaurants of typical regional dishes, determined in those environmental and productive territories a growth in value and the creation of a network of subjects specialized in quality accomodation and able to receive even the most demanding tourist. This urge for quality, an injection of power for tourism, suffers from the lack of means to bring the consumer closer to the knowledge of the territories, the service network and the means to reach them. The Association designs and carries out the complete census of the itineraries network and presents them in a paper product that grantsan easy and quick understanding of practical information for a good use of it. • The project of identifying a network of wine routes (the principal ones) and food itineraries – PDO or traditional food farming products – (the secondary ones) has the objective of better classifying the different territories in the collective imaginary and at the same time it aims at retaining customers by offering a varied range of services.

11. THE ROUTES NETWORK. THE “ARKEVINO” TOURIST GUIDE. The objective is to create an enotourism product that meets the Italian accommodation capacity and the demand of different targets, able of preserving at the same time the specific features of the territories where the firms promoting a wine route work. The final goal is to implement tourism and the usability of the GREEN ITINERARIES NETWORK THAT MAKE UP THE ROUTE, with the motivation of wine and the visit to the firms (and indirectly with the motivation of the cuisine and certified typical products). This implies a better allocation of visitors in the space of a year, since the enotourist tends to move during spring, usually March through June, and at the beginning of autumn, usually September through mid-October. • Arkevino is the tool to illustrate: • 1 the accomodation • 2 the quality of the service. • These are the two discriminator elements when choosing a destination and • in general when approaching the territory.

12. THE ROUTE NETWORK. THE “ARKEVINO” TOURIST GUIDE. ARKEVINO OBJECTIVES: Integration and quality of the territory’s promotion with respect to Certified Typical Products (Registered Designation of Origin, Guaranteed Registered Designation of Origin, Protected Designation of Origin and food farming products), and the provision of services. Exploitation of the network of Local Tourist Services. Spreading of the resources, of the strenghts and concrete potential of the territory. Identification of the place with the product offered, in order to start up a process of customers “fidelization” and promotion of the area.

13. THE ECO-TOURIST “WORKSHOP” OF THE WINE CITIES According to the data of “Conservation International”, the American Association for the conservation of the Earth natural landscapes, today in the world one out of five tourist chooses a nature-trip, with an increase rate ranging between 10% and 30%, according to geographical areas. As a consequence of int’l trends, such phenomenon appears to be spreading in Italy too, but takes different facets: “WINE AND FOOD TOURISM” “RURAL TOURISM” “CYCLE TOURISM” “EDUCATIONAL TOURISM” “RECREATIONAL TOURISM” “SPORTS TOURISM”. Wine Cities amount for a value comprised between 10% and 23% with regard to Eco-tourism and Extra-hotel infrastructures.

14. The age of users has changed We’re witnessing a change in terms of appeal of eco-tourism activities, more and more appreciated by young people. The Osservatorio sul Turismo Natura 2006/2007 shows that users of parks and protected areas are mainly people younger than 30 years-old , and highlights a decline of people over 60 years-old. In fact, these data are confirmed when focusing the class of users of those areas: young people on a school trip appear to prevail (33,6%), followed by families with children still attending school (33,1%); on the opposite, organized groups, generally formed by people over 60 years-old, which confirmed a stable growth during the last years, have recently shown a decrease.

15. The profile of users has changed As far as education is concerned, 25,1% of users have a university degree, 45,3% have a college degree, while 29,6% have an intermediate-level education. As far as the lenght of stay is concerned, the study shows that the most frequent category is the “no-stay” one, chosen by 31,5% of interviewed people (day-trippers, not considered when quantifying economical data), followed by “one-day stay” (28,8%), “a weekend stay” (15%), “one-week stay” (9,9%), “three-days stay” (9,2%), “more-than-one-week stay” (3,4%) and other minor categories (2,2%).

16. All projects developed by the Wine Cities are addressed to provide more cycling tracks Many new tracks are being included by local administrations in the tourist routes. The main objective of municipalities is to enhance the environmental and tourist value of the territories, developing projects aimed at the extension of the so called “minor roads”, through the addition of cycling paths and hiking paths and a better signposting to grant them more visibility.

17. Four are the main objectives of the Wine Cities on the topic of cycle-tourism and slow viability implementation: 1. TO EASE THE SITES USE THROUGH THE CREATION OF CYCLING TRACKS THAT ARE “INDIPENDENT”FROM HIGH-VIABILITY ROADS. To create a series of cycling tracks meant to reach less popular sites, Wine Routes and the related product routes and to connect the main tourist attractions and the locations of high artistic and social value. • 2. TO EASE TRANFERS BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT LOCATIONS THROUGH CYCLING AND PEDESTRIAN ROUTES WITHIN URBAN AREAS. • To promote the use of the bike as an alternative mean of • Transportation, creating high-safety paths for sportspeople, • passionates and tourists. This enables to keep pollution and traffic • under control and grants resident population a better knowledge of • secondary paths. • Very often, infact, cycling and pedestrian paths can exploit possibly • pre-existing sidewalks to enable both pedestrian and bikers to go.

18. 3. TO PROMOTE THE NETWORK SYSTEM OF CYCLING ROUTES WITHIN THE DIFFERENT AREAS. The network, infact, enables the creation of a complete alternative viability system useful for both inhabitants and tourists. That is to say a system that is competitive thanks to the continuity of cycling interconnected routes. 4. TO PROMOTE “THEME CYCLING ROUTES” AND THEIR CONNECTION WITH HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL ASPECTS OF THE TERRITORY. Each municipality meant to personalize, through the development of different projects, such routes that have become routes of art, history, sport and knowledge of the territory.

19. Municipalities advertise the offer available on the territory in a targeted manner and at the same time promote extraordinary maintenance. We are talking about well-signalled routes, provided with signposts along the path indicating high-interest sites. The objectives are: To enhance the visibility of Registered Designation of Origin and Guaranteed Registered Designation of Origin, that is to say, to improve the products positioning in consumers’ minds and in the tourist offer of Registered Designation of Origin. To increase the spreading of quality routes thatembrace all aspects of the tourism industry, with regard to the entire wine routes network as a real territorial system of quality. To improve the quality of accommodation, that is to say the general level of the tourist offer of the destination, enhancing, as a consequence, the quality of the residents life too. To improve the Territorial Network, that is to say, to manage the combination of natural resources and wine and food circuit, improving tourism in those natural territories that are traditionally not reached by tourism.

20. TIME PER PERSON VISIT PER PERSON USERS 24 ml 20h 10m 30 +19% +18% +12% www.stradedelvinoitalia.it ON LINE COMMUNICATION AND THE ROLE OF PORTALS IN WINE AND FOOD TOURISM: ITALIAN GROWTH INDICATORS Fonte: Nielsen Online – Panel Casa e Ufficio, Febbraio 2008, var% 2007vs2006

21. www.stradedelvinoitalia.it 2008 FORECASTS: COMMUNICATION TOOLS Stime su dati NMR, Fcp (Quot-altro), Audiposter (Affissioni), Osservatorio IAB/Assointernet

22. www.stradedelvinoitalia.it “WHAT DOES THE CONSUMER FIND WHEN LOOKING FOR WINE AND FOOD TOURISM? DO OUR TERRITORIES REALLY REACH EUROPEAN AND EXTRA EUROPEAN CONSUMERS?” The general consumer finds it difficult to get information: 89% of Europeans and 93% of Americans look for Italy but do not buy it, within a framework where the European operators sell-out does not outperform 36% and the foreign operators sell-out does not go over 50%. Something happens the moment between the desire and the final decision. This means a significative loss of market shares. There’s a need for a well-balanced working tool: on the internet the offer still appears to be casual and overloaded with irrelevant information.

23. www.stradedelvinoitalia.it “IS WWW.STRADEDELVINOITALIA.IT PROVING TO BE EFFECTIVE?” 91% of internet users ends up sooner or later on the official site of the brand, the territory or the product he/she is looking for, but often only after having visited other websites where search engines lead to thanks to keywords. Therefore, because of the spreading of portals and the lack of a single searching privileged tool, the need of creating a new working platform emerged. A new generation portal, with different levels, with a dynamic structure and well-balanced contents. A tool that enables the integration of documents, forms and databases. A NEW SERVICE CENTRE to surf through offers /by region/by data/by category/by company/by Route This way the offer becomes more easy to access and surf through thanks to the creation of a service centre: 1) Simple and schematic layouts 2) Geo-references for Wine and Food Routes 3) Management by forms of the members of the Wine Routes offers 4) Use of final users language 5) Control over contents uploaded by advertisers 6) Easing of hold-over times

24. www.stradedelvinoitalia.it “A SERVICE CENTRE IN THE GLOBALIZATION ERA, WHILE WAITING FOR THE WINE REFORM (OCM VINO) TO BE IMPLEMENTED” So the third portal of Città del Vino could be a real service centre gathering the best offers by the members of the Wine and Food routes. It is in fact the globalization that calls for centralization. We need to remind that, once the wine reform will be implemented, the competition won’t be between products but between the territories that the Wine Routes will represent. Chances are we will witness a downsizing of the routes, given that there are many non active routes in Italy that do not create added value but overload the offer, to the detriment of those active and professional routes. The website will be structured as follows: • A back-end area enabling firms to create their own profile, by providing their contact data, their pictures, initiatives/events and products. • A front-end area where the user can surf the offer /by region/by data/by category/by company/by Route looking for events and products to buy/book. 3) A system that sends automatically each single request to the firms, on the basis of the categories they have indicated (in the back-end by user/by mail/by fax), therefore skipping purchase orders.

25. L’ Associazione Nazionale Città del Vino www.cittadelvino.it www.stradedelvinoditalia.it www.selezionedelsindaco.it