Wine Tourism: Nascent Industry…Immense Potential

Heena Munshaw - Mumbai

Wine culture is in its premature phase in India. Wine tourism the subject itself sounds remote for an Indian tour operator to discuss today. It may be a fashion to attend wine launches, and one is considered quite a happening socialite, if you serve wine at your party. The truth remains that 98 per cent of our audiences are totally ignorant about ‘wine culture’. There lies a huge opportunity for the world, once again to tantalise the hard-core whisky-drinking candidate to convert to appreciating wine. Majority Indians would drink wine just because they may enjoy it, and they will even learn to travel to regions, that produce the world's great wines, which is followed by gourmet tourism. The old world wine countries have been famous for centuries, but the new world wine is soon catching up, and is probably far more innovative with the perfect grip on wine tourism.

To give you an idea of how specialised this sector is becoming, let's look at some details. First MasterCard International Wine Tourism Conference was held in Margaret River, Western Australia last May 2-5 and was attended by 260 delegates and had speakers from 14 of the world's primary wine tourism countries. The purpose was to be enlightened with the latest market and regional intelligence from the US$15 billion global industry. The event astonished tourism industry experts of the huge potential this sector offers.

Food and wine has no language barriers and translates quickly into tourism dollars anywhere in the world. This gives tremendous opportunity to each region to preserve and maintain their singular character, authenticity and uniqueness resulting in development of regional tourism including premium wineries and fine restaurants. This also encourages world-class arts and crafts to be developed round the region.

Asians are fairly new to the wine culture, while our neighbors like Singapore and Malaysia offer a wider range of wines imported from the world over. India has a long way to go. Our visitors to new wine countries are simply enjoying a night or two in the wine regions, simply drinking wine for the fun of it. Sula, Champagne Indage and Tulleeho are working hard towards developing India's wine culture and in the future will not only popularise wine drinking, probably have our own wine tourism!

We all may have to learn new things in the process, but whose complaining? Be it Pinot Noir, or Merlot, or simply, "red" or "white" the fad is going to be the fact and is here to stay. There is great potential of international wine tourism and what can be achieved by working together cooperatively, with different countries, and product suppliers, as wine tourism is going to grow as an individual sector, and an important part of the specialty leisure market.

India remains a unique aberration to the simultaneous phenomenon of wine culture and wine tourism. Wine consumption in India is redoubtably close to mustering critical mass but wine tourism is manifested at best with wayside trips on a limb by enthused tourists, mostly inbound. One of India's largest wine producers and exporters Champagne Indage is trying to regularise and grow this market to drive tourism to its vineyards and wine making facility in Narayangaon, Nashik. Amar Jog, head of Champagne Indage's hospitality division is currently overseeing the company's unprecedented wine spa project in Narayangaon that should open for business in two years time. "The wine spa will mirror the standards and quality of those in France, though, it will be approachable in terms of pricing. There will also be an emphasis on wine education in a more informal manner, incorporating tours and tastings. The wine spa will have accommodation. We believe the wine spa will not only boost our brand but also do great service to the movement to proliferate the wine culture in India and give Indian wine an international presence. Amit Kapoor, assistant manager, Designer Holidays, however feels, there are too many miles to go before India becomes a reckoner in terms of wine tourism. "Wine tourism is a discerning special interest segment that is defined by high-end luxury. There isn't acceptable accommodation, let alone luxury on the precincts of Indian vineyards. There aren't enough people who know about wines to double as guides. The enthusiasm from Indian winemakers isn't consistent enough for the travel trade to start selling wine tours to India, though if this were to happen, India would receive some very high-end tourists."

(With inputs from Bhisham Mansukhani, Mumbai)