Over 200 wine tourism professionals attended the first Wine Tourism Conference, held this past November in Napa, California. Attendees overwhelmingly elected to continue the conference on an annual basis and selected Sonoma County as the 2012 host location. See the 2011 conference details for complete information and an idea of what is to come in 2012.
The conference is designed to provide hard information about the important and growing industry of wine tourism that you can bring home to affect your local business or organization. The conference will appeal to:
- Wineries that would like to increase the number of visitors to their winery and improve cellar door sales
- Wine and tourism promotion agencies and chambers of commerce who are tasked to increase the number of butts in seats, bodies in beds, and inquiring minds at area attractions
- Tour operators, travel agencies, transportation companies, event planners, hotels, and restaurants that make their living from wine tourism
- Public relations professionals and other consultants to the wine and tourism industries
- Academics and students from university wine tourism programs
- Media and bloggers who write about wine and tourism
What can you expect to get out of the conference?
- An overview of wine tourism from our keynote speakers and wine, tourism, and media panels
- Specific, useful information you can use in subjects such as social media marketing and customer service from our breakout sessions and industry track meetings
- Networking opportunities both in a formal Meet & Greet session, during our no-host lunch for tour operators and wine/tourism associations, and throughout the conference
- An opportunity to pour your wine if you are one of the first 40 winery associations registered to attend
The Wine Tourism Conference is organized by Zephyr Adventures, which has been providing adventure travel tour vacations around the world since 1997 and specializes in trekking, bicycling, inline skating, and active wine, food, and beer tours. Recognizing an unfulfilled need for real-life gatherings for those involved in online social media, Zephyr Adventures also owns and operates a series of conferences for wine, beer, food, and fitness and health bloggers. For information on the WBC see www.WineBloggersConference.org.
We are also proud to have an excellent Advisory Board, consisting of the following individuals.
- Tim Zahner, Sonoma County Tourism
- Ray Johnson, Sonoma State University’s Wine Business Institute
- Nancy Light, Wine Institute
- Colby Smith, Concierge Alliance of Napa Valley and Sonoma
- Dan Fox, Touring & Tasting Mag
- Morgen McLaughlin, Finger Lakes Wine Country
- Allison George, Washington County Visitors Association
- Marcy Gordon, Come for the Wine
We hope you can join us in November, 2012 in Sonoma County!
As a person who has been in the wine industry for nearly 20 years and spent a few years as a wine tour guide I hope an important point will be explored at the conference. We need to promote California as a year-round destination. We tend to look within our state instead of across the country and world for visitors. To peopl in the Eastern and mid-Western US, CA is a sunny paradise, even in the depths of our winter. We are missing revenue by not marketing our state in this way. Travel and touism should not be seasonal in CA.
Thanks,
Jolene Tompkins
Quality Wine Tours in Finger LAKES WINE COUNTRY REGION