Wine Tourism Pours Sales And Profits For Travel Agents

Wine tourism is one of the most popular growth markets today, experts say, driven by enthusiasts who have a high household income and loyalty to local affinity groups that love to travel – and savvy travel agents are finding with the right partnerships, they can target and market both individual and group travel in this high growth and profitable niche. 

AmaWaterways has been conducting wine tastings and tours for about six years now, but it was during the last 3-4 years that bookings began to soar, said Gary Murphy, vice president of sales. This year, AmaWaterways will have 50 hosted wine departures.  

“On top of that, we have this devoted community of retail travel agencies doing wine groups for their clients,” said Murphy. Agents work with Liz Barrett, AmaWaterways sales and business development manager, hired specifically to drive wine cruise bookings with agents.  

Barrett is a certified wine educator. “Her whole focus is working with the agent to design itineraries, where an agent works with a local vendor, maybe a sommelier who has a following, or a local vineyard, to sell cabins for a specific sailing,” Murphy said. “We’ll do co-op marketing with the agent and the vendor to host an event, or a promotion. We’ll produce flyers. Whatever we need to do.” 

Murphy said these partnerships have been so successful, “we have agents selling entire ships with a wine group. They might start off selling a 20-30 cabin trip. But the next year, it’s double. And the third year, they’re selling out the whole ship.” 

Niche is ripe for the right business blend
Michelle Woodson Howell has been a travel agent for about 14 years, launching into wine tourism about four years ago when she participated in a GIFTE program about building relationships with affinity groups. Today, approximately 90% of her bookings are with affinity groups, and about 80-90% of those sales are wine tours, mainly river group cruises that average 30-40 guests. 

She works mostly with wine clubs and wineries. 

“I tell the business owners, your customers are going on these trips anyway, so why not have them go with you on a trip. The loyalty that is cemented between the travelers and the business owner is something you need to educate the owner about.” 

“My goal is to do full ship charters. It’s definitely possible, especially with some of the smaller ships with Crystal Cruises and Tauck. I could do a couple of vineyards on one itinerary.” 

Tracy Drechsler is working on developing partnerships with one or more of the 76 vineyards on the East End of Long Island, near where her agency, Your Dream Travel Concierge, Oakdale, NY, is located. She attends local wine expos to make contacts with vineyards and vendors who might be interested in a joint venture where Drechsler organizes the trips, and the partner helps market to their customers. 

“I consider myself a foodie. I enjoy wine and learning about it. I have family members involved in the craft beer world. For me it was taking something I was passionate about, and trying to grow my business in a new direction,” Drechsler said. 

Drechsler subscribes to “The Juice,” a local online magazine about wine happenings on Long Island, to find partners and understand local trends. She recently attended an area wine festival where admission was $75, and VIP admissions were $200. The event said both the afternoon and evening sessions sold out a total of 2,000 spots for the show. 

Key Tours Vacations offered Drechsler $100 coupons for her to hand out to attendees, as an incentive for them to provide her with contact information. Attendees “have to contact me to obtain the code to use on a future Key Tours trip they book through me,” Drechsler said, explaining how she seeks out partners keen on working with agents to grow their mutual business.  

“Key Tours packages trips like scotch tasting in Scotland, river cruises, pretty much anything related to this affinity group, so marketing with them at the show was a great fit,” she said. (While the wine expo attendee demographics were perfect for wine tours, she was the only attendee selling travel.) 

Similarly, Diane Bean, who owns Off on Vacation, Bangor, ME, took a booth at the Boston Wine Expo recently, collecting hundreds of business cards and contact info from wine enthusiasts and wine sellers attendees. She is now building her database for marketing promotions and looking for a vendor partner. 

Julia Matheson, owner and chief travel consultant at Matheson Travel, Hickory, NC, specializes in highly customized tours and is developing her business plan for wine tours as well. She lived and traveled extensively in France, so she is looking for the right local partner to allow her to use her knowledge and local contacts to curate wine tours in regions like Burgundy and Bordeaux. 

She is currently targeting local vineyards, wine stores and wine bars, “places with a strong following. We have a really nice wine shop here, selling everything from France, Napa, the [Oregon] Willamette Valley, Chile. The idea is to piggyback on that and organize trips to destinations where your partner is selling wine from. I would love to do something like a barge tour in Burgundy.” 

Drechsler and AmaWaterways’ Murphy also advise agents to seek out local restaurants with a strong wine list and loyal following. “They can bring you or someone else in to speak about wine and travel,” Drechsler said. “For business building, this is untapped right now. There is a lot of opportunity.” 

Persistence and passion sell
Murphy said that the profile of a successful wine tourism agent is someone who is passionate “about building this experience. You have to get in your car, and drive to the winery, wine bar.” 

“Agents also have to learn to accept rejection. You have to reach out to these wineries repeatedly to tell them how these trips work. It isn’t going to click for them the first time. But once they go on their first wine cruise with their customers, then they get really interested.” 

“Even if you don’t have the wine knowledge yet, you’ll learn. You don’t have to become a sommelier. But you should know something about what you’re talking about when you are speaking to potential partners,” Murphy said. 

Once an agent establishes a partnership to market a sailing, “You need to be in touch with that target on a regular basis, knowing what kind of events they are hosting and find a way to be a part of it. Make sure they are promoting the wine cruise on every occasion and through every channel they use to communicate to their clients.”