IWINETC 2018: 10th International Wine Tourism Conference in Budapest Big Hit

The Presentation by the London-based Consultant on digital media, Paul Richer focused on Generation Z and how to approach them based on their lifestyle, ambition and clarity of purpose. (Details will be in an Article in future edition). It was a very interesting talk filled with short videos and practical and relevant suggestions.

Robin Shaw, a consultant with her own company, Wine Tourism Australia had a Presentation on how the wineries could increase their sales beyond the Cellar Door by making wine club members and following them before events and get them excited about them.  She discussed mapping the customer journey and activating touch points to generate and increase sales revenue and  gave examples of the wine industry. But she also suggested that they could be equally useful to the tour operators, travel agents and others in the tourism supply chain.

Dr. Barbara Masberg of Central Washington University presented an Analysis of Wine Tourism Life Cycle Stages in Washington State. She talked of Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle Model .  Geza Pacs of Apacs Studio had many takers for his Presentation. He emphasized that in today’s world of social media everyone builds brand an it does not mean just the physical ownership of the brand. Everyone can have his or her own brand without even realizing it.

Stylianos Filopoulos, Director of ‘Wine in Moderation’ in Brussels shared the story of how the organization had come to be and how they focused on Europe and Chile in South America to integrate their programme with various wineries including those engaged in wine tourism. As a voluntary organization , he offered suggestions and invited the audience for same for  consideration at his organization level. It’s a noble concept that needs to be promoted in the world- drinking too much wine can be harmful not only for your health but can cause damage to the others through drunken driving. Every winery and bar owner needs to formulate policies to discourage those who have had excessive quantities to avoid driving. It was necessary to promote responsible drinking for sustainable wine culture, he concluded.

Csilla J’anosi of Wine a’More Travel, Hungary was very gunge-ho about travel within Hungary despite the regions being small-since they were very terroir related regions that offered diversity in the wines that they produced.

Climax of the Conference, as usual was the Presentation by Alfred Retortillo, Minister of Tourism, Trade and Consumer Affairs of the region after Anthony Swift announced Vitoria-Gasteiz in the province of Alava in the Basque Country,  as next year’s venue. His talk preceded by a video of the gastronomic delights that the region had to offer was salivating for many who confirmed their presence at the end of his talk.

The Conference has two streams of attendees-wine madia and travel agents –the former going for a visit of Eger and Tokaj in the North whereas the other group invited to B2B conferences followed by 2-day trip in another region including Lake Belaton in the western part of Hungary. The Conference was closed with invitation to the participants to be at the next year’s Conference on 12-13 March, 2019.

As was mentioned in the previous issue of delWine, the event was organised by Wine Pleasures, the Spain-based company.  With Hungarian Tourism Agency as the main sponsor, the event has been an excellent opportunity to taste Hungarian wines and appreciate Hungary as a wine tourism destination. Certainly, if it was the purpose of the sponsors to dispel the view that Hungary makes cheap wines as it did for decades as a part of the socialist block, they have been successful in doing so with several opinion makes in the world.

For more details about Exhibitors, Speakers and their Presentation, please visit www.iwinetc.com.

For earlier article click IWINETC 2018: 10th International Wine Conference opens in Budapest

Subhash Arora

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