We are super pleased to announce that Portland, Oregon will be the host of the 2013 Wine Tourism Conference, scheduled for November 14-15, 2013.
This is a big move for the conference. Next year will be the third year of the conference but the first year outside the North American hub of wine tourism (and the wine industry), Napa and Sonoma. This move is critical, however, since wine tourism is important in every wine region around the country, the hemisphere, and the world.
And we think Oregon is going to host an incredible conference. The conference will take place at the DoubleTree Hotel in Portland, which is an excellent conference venue (we at Zephyr Adventures just ran the wine, food, and beer bloggers conferences there) and will allow out-of-town attendees to visit downtown Portland with its fantastic restaurants, hip street food, and fun wine bars.
But it will be important, too, to get into the vineyards. We have set up a pre-conference excursion (details coming soon) to the southern Willamette Valley for a visit to area wineries including King Estate, the largest winery in Oregon and an excellent example of successful wine tourism. Those who participate will fly into Eugene and train up to Portland for the conference.
We are also working on creating a post-conference excursion in the upper Willamette Valley. Plus, Travel Oregon will host a fantastic lunch featuring Oregon food, Oregon Wine will organize a reception featuring Oregon wines, and we will again have the very successful Local Wines reception with wines poured by winery associations from around North America and, hopefully, other areas of the world.
We invite you to attend to join many industry leaders at the only conference in the hemisphere focused on the weighty issue of wine tourism. Registration is open today!