industry insights
Visit the vines In September last year, we penned a column for The Shout NZ about how wine tourism was on the rise in New Zealand. How, of all international holiday visitors, 27% visit a New Zealand winery, and annually we had over 700,000 visitors who spent over 3.8 million dollars. How the international wine tourist was spending more, staying longer and visiting more regions than the average visitor. Now, only a year later, everything has changed. The impact of COVID-19 has been huge on wineries who relied on international tourists visiting their cellar doors, taking part in their vineyard tours, dining in their restaurants and staying in their vineyard accommodation. More than 300 New Zealand wineries offer nearly 500 wine tourism experiences, and many of these were made for international travellers who were looking for premium experiences and memories. With the impact of COVID-19, we have all been challenged to look at the world a bit differently. New Zealanders are not currently able to escape on overseas holidays, and so are motivated instead to get out and explore their own backyard. New Zealand Winegrowers have launched a domestic wine tourism campaign called ‘Visit the Vines’ to inspire New Zealanders to discover our picturesque wine regions, taste in our winery cellar doors, enjoy a long lunch in our restaurants, stay in luxury vineyard accommodation,
Amber Silvester Communications Manager, New Zealand Winegrowers
and explore other visitor experiences. The theme of our Visit the Vines Sip, Dine, Stay, Play initiative aligns with the Tourism New Zealand’s ‘Do Something New, New Zealand’ campaign, encouraging everyone to discover something different, without leaving the country. Kiwis still have an appetite for adventure, and anecdotal feedback from wineries tells us that New Zealanders are making the effort to get out and support or shop local. We hope to see this only increase with summer and the holiday season just around the corner. Check out nzwine.com/visit to see suggestions for short break ideas, and special winery offers, and keep an eye out on social media on @nzwinegrowers to be part of the Visit the Vines action.
Is a springboard summer ahead? As we come out of the second COVID-19 wave and partial lockdown, New Zealanders are clearly sick and tired of being restricted from spending their hard earned (working from home) dollars on the experiences and products they know and love. The most recent data from Stats NZ paints an interesting, if not too unsurprising, picture. A lockdown means people spend less on hospitality (hospitality food and beverage card spending from March-May was down $1.39b on 2019) and following lockdowns, pent up demand can see a spike in activity (July 2020 saw $91m more spent than July 2019). The question many in the beer and hospitality sector will be asking themselves is ‘Will a strong domestic demand this summer help us out of a long hard winter?’. The signs so far are pretty good. With national data for September when Auckland was still at Level 2 showing food and beverage spending for hospitality was almost on par with 2019. So, if we can focus our efforts as a sector in providing those good honest kiwi hospitality experiences, the captive domestic market is there for the taking. This summer, New Zealanders will likely be taking a good look at themselves. By this I mean they will be traveling to places around the country they may never have seen before. Looking for those experiences international visitors so often grace our shores for. The difficulty here will be for those businesses in the larger urban centres. Which are more likely to see an exodus of customers in search of a summer getaway out of town.
Dylan Firth Executive Director, Brewers Association of New Zealand
To this end, it is up to brewers and hospitality businesses to take advantage of a captive market this summer and target those looking for a destination. Because it is likely that next winter as unemployment increases and households tighten their belts it will be hard out there for many and less discretionary spend by consumers.
THE SHOUT NZ – NOV/DEC 2020 7