Best of Wine Tourism
Four Hawke’s Bay wine tourism operations have been celebrated in the inaugural Great Wine Capitals Best Of Wine Tourism awards.
Last year there were 90 million mini-billboards promoting New Zealand, thanks to bottles of our wine on American tables. According to Tourism New Zealand, an ‘Active Considerer’ is someone who is seriously considering travel to New Zealand within the next three years, and research from Kantar shows that 35% of American adults are Active Considerers for travel to New Zealand.
Based on research conducted as part of the IWSR New Zealand Wine Brand Health Tracker in the US market, we found that 5.5 million (53%) of New Zealand Wine drinkers are Active Considerers for travel to New Zealand. This is significantly more than the 35% of adults reported by Kantar. That’s evidence that our many millions of mini-billboards are having an impact on tourism to New Zealand.
And who are these consumers? They are more likely to be high-earning females and classified as ‘Engaged Explorers’, highly involved in the wine category, more likely to be located in the Pacific region, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, and actively seeking opportunities to build wine experiences. They also drink a lot of Sauvignon Blanc, with the tally at 55%.
Why is this important? Based on pre-Covid-19 surveys, 25% of inbound tourists visited New Zealand wineries for tastings. Adelaide University research revealed that 54% of cellar door visitors purchased an average nine bottles of wine, 50% indicated they would purchase in the future, 16% who had never purchased a cellar door brand previously began to buy it after their visit, and 33% went on to repeat purchase from retail stores. Pre-Covid surveys also revealed that New Zealand cellar door visitors highly rated their experience, with an average satisfaction score in excess of 9/10. In other words, these consumers are brand advocates, highly likely to make positive recommendations to their social networks. And indeed they do. The Adelaide research showed that more than 80% of consumers who visited a cellar door went on to recommend to friends, family or colleagues within three months, making on average three positive referrals.
Therefore, the opportunity for wine tourism is to target drinkers of New Zealand wine as Active Considerers and convert them to Actual Travellers. When cellar doors continue to provide a wonderful experience at the homes of New Zealand wine brands, they can reconnect with these brand fans, then reactivate them after they have returned home. This will create even more converts to New Zealand wine, and in turn more Active Considerers for travel to New Zealand. It’s not just a return trip, it’s a continuous round trip. If done well, this can cost effectively build a New Zealand Wine Brand Army, because a fabulous experience means brand fans love to spread the word, for free!
Richard Lee is an Intel and Insights Specialist at New Zealand Winegrowers.
