Feria de Valladolid presents, FINE, International Wine Tourism Fair, which will be held February 12^th and 13^th 2020. Fine is a new event aimed at Wineries, Wine Landscapes and professional groups involved in the development of wine tourism.

The general manager of Feria de Valladolid, Alberto Alonso, points out that this project arises with the aim of “being a business place, encourage commercial relations between southern Europe wine regions and the main international issuing markets”.

This kind of tourism that combines culture, heritage, wine, gastronomy and experiences keeps in a clear ascending line of customers. According to the data of Wine Cities Spanish Association (Asociación Española de Ciudades del Vino) in 2018 the wine routes received 3.2 million visitors that generated an economic impact of 67 million euros. The majority of those visitors, 73.8 percent, are Spanish.

In Spain there are 28 routes of this kind, distributed by eleven regions: Castilla y León (7), Aragón (4), Andalusia and Murcia (3), Catalonia, Valencian Community, Basque Country and La Rioja (2) and Galicia, Extremadura and Navarra (1).

The wineries and museums with the highest number of visitors are located in the Jerez Wine and Brandy routes (more than 500,000) and in the Penedés Wine and Cava route (486,000). Next are Ribera del Duero, Empordà, Calatayud, Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rías Baixas, with more than 100,000 wine tourists per year.

Alberto Alonso points out that the creation of FINE obeys “the desire to offer wineries, wine Denominations of Origin, wine routes and any companies that sell wine tourism a fair where they can manage commercial contacts and agreements in order to them to keep growing. In our close environment, wine tourism is a very important business segment with great prospects for development. And we want to be partners of those who work with that objective.”

Given the specific characteristics of wine tourism, the work between private companies and public organizations is essential. This collaboration can be seen in FINE, through the involvement of Valladolid City Council, the Culture and Tourism Ministry of Junta de Castilla y León and Diputación de Valladolid.

The impact of wine tourism in the territories where wineries, museums, restaurants and accommodation are located requires, according to the experts, coordinated actions from both public and private sectors in order to guarantee the success of am industry that combines three main basis in the country’s economy: tourism, wine and gastronomy.

The French Tourism Development Agency estimated in 2016 the number of wine tourists was ten million, of which 42 percent were foreigners. The economic impact estimated is more than 5,000 million euros. The most visited areas were Bordeaux, (18% of the total), Champagne (17.2), Alsace (16.9), Burgundy (16.2), Loire (13) and Rhône Valley and Provence with 11, 5 percent.

The figures of Italy, the second world producer of wine, are around 5 million foreign wine tourists in its 170 routes per year. Valpolicella, Tuscany, Barolo, Modena, Reggio Emilia … are some of the wine tourism destinations in the country.

The mayor of Valladolid, Óscar Puente, attends the official presentation of FINE; the Minister of the Economy Department of Junta de Castilla y León, Pilar del Olmo; the president of Diputación de Valladolid, Jesús Julio Carnero; the president of the Executive Committee of Feria de Valladolid, Víctor Caramanzana; as well as managers responsible for Denominations of Origin, wineries and other entities related to the industry.

The structure of FINE will be focused on generating business meetings in different scenarios: a commercial and promotion exhibition area, meeting spaces, knowledge transfer and areas for both scheduled and spontaneous meetings.

Wineries and wine landscapes will be the main characters at FINE’s exhibition area, where business clusters, Denominations of Origin, MICE tourism, receptive tourism agencies and professional collectives will also be allowed to participate.

The profile of FINE’s visitor is mainly those agents that are suitable to buy wine tourism products in both national and international markets. Paulo Amorim will be the ambassador of FINE. He is a Portuguese entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in international wine markets and in the promotion of wine tourism in Portugal. He was the creator of Viniportugal, an organization that promoted the brand “Wines of Portugal” around the world.

In the national scope Silvia Martínez, from Feria de Valladolid, will be the person managing FINE, given her experience in the tourist industry, especially in inland tourism products after more than ten years dedicated to the fair INTUR.