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Food and Wine Tourism is Growing Fast in New Zealand
New Zealand’s International Visitor Survey shows that visitors to wine trails and vineyards are outnumbering other iconic activities popular with visitors such as jet boating and walking on a glacier.
"This growth is no doubt due to the growth in the number of wineries throughout New Zealand and the high quality of the wines being produced" says Craig Wilson, Manager of the New Zealand Food and Wine Tourism Network (NZFWTN). "However this consistent growth is also due to the wine industry understanding the value of wine tourism from both a brand building and revenue generation perspective. The result is a growth in high quality wine trail / vineyard experiences being provided to visitors that consistently deliver high levels of visitor satisfaction."
The New Zealand Food and Wine Tourism Network is committed to building the sector further by encouraging more food and wine tourism businesses to collaborate in marketing their high quality experiences to international visitors via "New Zealand’s Premium Food & Wine Tourism Experiences" product manual. This year’s product manual showcases over 40 experiences from leading food and wine tourism specialists around New Zealand. "Our primary purpose in creating this new product manual of premium experiences is to encourage travel intermediaries from New Zealand and around the world to consider including more food and wine options in itineraries for their clients" says Craig Wilson, Manager of the NZFWTN. "So we’ve expanded the collection of top-end experiences that are pre-bookable and delicious!"
New Zealand’s stature as a culinary tourism destination is certainly being noticed. The USA based International Culinary Tourism Association recently announced that New Zealand would be incorporated into their 2010 State of the Culinary Tourism Industry Report & Readiness Index. This report is the first ever of its kind in the industry and is intended to not only serve as a bellwether for our industry, but also as a resource for journalists around the world who cover food, travel, business and lifestyle stories.
For more information:
Craig Wilson, Manager
Email: craig@qualitytourism.co.nz
Phone: +64 (0) 272 410 549
Website: www.newzealand.com (refer the Taste New Zealand Feature)
