Why wine tourism is the future of travel (even if you don’t drink)

It goes without saying that travel is widely considered by most to be a means of escape from normal life. But living through a global pandemic watching travel opportunities dry up has brought this facet of holidaying even more sharply into focus, as well as also highlighting the need to take sufficient social distancing into account when booking a trip.

However, one company has clearly kept a close eye on this shift in the industry, harnessing the public's changing attitude toward travel over the past year and using it to their advantage. This is London-based tourism firm Winerist, founded just over six years ago by wine expert Diana Isac with the intention of offering bespoke wine and food tours to far-flung corners of the world.

Instead of organising mammoth group trips through the more well-trodden vineyards on the planet, Winerist is offering an interesting take on wine tourism that is far more suitable for a post-pandemic world. It has Diana and her team have spent much of the pandemic searching out new wine-heavy destinations, away from the crowds, to ensure that over-tourism (and overcrowding) doesn't rear its ugly head post-lockdown.

As such, Winerist was created to showcase wine tourism at its very best. It is currently the largest online travel specialist for wine and food tours, with an enormous directory of wineries, wine tours, cooking classes and wine hotels, all of which can be accessed from the search tool on Winerist's site. 

In order to cement their status as the go-to source for wine travel information and bookings, Winerist are enthusiastically promoting both well-known (but under-visited) and lesser known wine tourism destinations for 2021 and beyond including winemakers in the Douro Valley in Portugal, Bordeaux in France, Tuscany in Italy, Mendoza in Argentina and the underrated vineyards of Moldova, Diana's homeland. 

Whilst many hotels have closed throughout various global lockdowns, vineyards have continued to function. Winerist currently showcases 133 wine regions, 220 hotels, 500 food and cooking experiences, 700 wineries and 1200 wine tours, all available for guests to book online. Guests can book now and pay for experiences later with a 24-hour cancellation policy in place, considering current changing travel restrictions. 

Winerist was born in beautiful Burgundy, when Diana took her own wine trip and was struck by how difficult it was to find access to wineries and wine experiences. Building a strong connection between the wine industry and budding wine travellers became her passion and six years later Winerist has become the go-to provider of incredible wine travel experiences all over the world.

Furthermore, guest experience and quality is key, and the business has formed close partnerships with some of the best and most exciting wineries and wine travel experiences across the globe. Each and every Winerist partner is handpicked for their ability to provide outstanding customer service and experience, and a Winerist booking agent is on hand to advise and assist guests at every stage of the wine travel journey. 

"Wine tourism offers space and seclusion," Diana comments. "As we plan future trips, away from the crowds, Winerist.com has a wide selection of experiences to entice travellers to experience unique hospitality around the world always accompanied by good wine.

"The current global pandemic has changed our travel habits but while we have been in lockdowns, vineyards have remained busy and many of these are eager to welcome travellers back. I encourage all travellers to consider a wine break in 2021 and let Winerist.com do the research for you. This trip may turn out to be the most memorable yet”.  

www.winerist.com