Wine Commission and Tourism Region unite to promote Algarve wine tourism in Portugal and Spain

Primary demand for travel associated with food and wine has been growing at a rate of 5% to 8% per year

Wine tourism - Photo: Elisabete Rodrigues | Sul Informação

«Half of the producers in the Algarve already have an offer of wine tourism», totaling 30 producing farms throughout the region, where tourists can experience the Algarve wines and the way they are produced, said Sara Silva, president of the Algarve Wine Commission ( CVA).

The official spoke this Thursday, at Praia do Carvoeiro, during the signing of a protocol that joins the Algarve Tourism Region (RTA) with the Algarve Wine Commission (CVA) with the aim of boosting wine tourism.

Promoting the Algarve wine region in the wider domestic market (Portugal and Spain), showing residents and tourists the quality of Lagos, Portimão, Lagoa and Tavira Denomination of Origin wines, is what the two regional entities want.

As a very small wine region, with producers mostly from farms, "our size creates constraints, but it also brings benefits: the tourist who visits a farm is often welcomed by the producer himself", which gives another interest to the experience, added Sara Silva.

 

João Fernandes, president of RTA, stressed that this organization "has, associated with its international promotion, gastronomy for many years". The relationship with wine producers "is more recent", he admitted, but it has been a long time since "wine has been included in the tourism value chain", being this "a work that has no end" and that "involves us all".

But the responsible for the RTA also stressed that it is necessary «that the wine is not just a complement, but becomes the very motto for visiting the Algarve».

In fact, as Luís Encarnação, mayor of Lagoa, who hosted the signing of the protocol, pointed out, in the new and provisional facilities of the Praia do Carvoeiro Tourism Office, international studies show that «more people travel motivated by gastronomy and by the wine that by the sun and sea».

For this reason, the mayor pointed out, “the municipality of Lagoa is very happy to sponsor wine tourism, to help mitigate seasonality and build the loyalty of tourists who visit us”.

Even in a difficult summer for tourism in the Algarve, in the country and in the world, the president of RTA explained the commitment that has gone through «working the integration of regional products in the tourism chain», thus creating a «more identity and differentiating offer» .

 

As for the protocol signed between RTA and CVA, João Fernandes explained that wine tourism in the Algarve will now be promoted "in the wider domestic market, in Portugal and Spain", the areas where the promotion of the destination promoted by the Tourism Region extends. In the neighboring country, he recalled, "joint actions" have already taken place at the Consulate of Portugal in Seville, at the Portuguese Embassy in Madrid, at Fitur (Madrid Tourism Fair), or even, around here, at BTL, the Tourism Exchange from Lisbon.

But the goal now is to go further. For that, guaranteed the president of the RTA, «we have the support of the Consul in Seville and the Ambassador in Madrid, so that we can be a little more ambitious in this aspect of wine tourism». Even with the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, there will soon be promotional actions.

João Fernandes gave the example of the Cape Town area, in South Africa, considered one of the most important in wine tourism worldwide. "They are much larger than ours, but they have the same markets as us – English, German, Irish -, but at a different time." Therefore, contacts have already been made to promote «cross-selling» with Cape Town.

But, more important than that, are the lessons that knowing the reality of South Africa brought: «the wine producer has to change his mindset to become a wine tourism producer", since, if this product is well structured, "50% of the production is sold on the farm", allowing "a more competitive price" and interesting for the producer, but also "customer loyalty" .

 

On her part, Sara Silva, president of the CVA, defended the need to promote the qualification of the sector, through «professional training in the wine tourism sector». Everything so that whoever receives the tourist knows how to do it in the best way possible. “We need to well publicize our offer in wine tourism, but it is necessary to have it very qualified”, he stressed.

Luís Encarnação, mayor of Lagoa, even highlighted the protocol to be signed between the IEFP and Tourism to «provide training for hotel and restaurant professionals in the area of ​​wines», specifically for those in the region. «We have to be able to propose and advise tourists to taste our wines and harmonize them with our cuisine».

On the sidelines of signing the protocol, Sara Silva told the Sul Informação that the wine sector in the Algarve has been heavily impacted by the fall in tourism caused by the pandemic. «Here in the Algarve, exports, or even sales to other regions of the country, are still weak and we depended heavily on sales to regional restaurants and tourists». The fall in the sector was "huge", in the order of 80 to 90 percent.

All the more reason for the people of the Algarve to help themselves, not only by consuming the region's wine, but also by promoting it. As mayor Luís Encarnação said, «it's not the same thing to accompany a cataplana, as those that are so well made here, with a good white wine from the Algarve or a beer».

 

Photos:  Elisabete Rodrigues | Sul Informação

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