Editor’s note: This article was first published in February 2011. Its further reading list includes a “Business ideas for 2011” article, and its examples and outlook reflect that year.
Everything to do with wine tourism (wine culture) is attracting massive interest from foreign tourists. As we’ve discussed on other occasions, any business idea built on innovation in tourism is already a byword for profitability, all the more so in our country (Spain), which according to statistics is the second most visited country in the world.
The new business revolves around tourism within the world of oenology: you would show tourists everything from the grape harvest through the whole winemaking process.
If you combine this with business tourism, where visitors could also learn how the winery got started, how it was financed and what marketing strategies it used, you can end up offering the tourist a broad and genuinely useful package.
In La Rioja, numerous companies already offer this kind of tourism and have managed to turn this interest in winemaking into very profitable businesses.
I’d add that other business opportunities spring up alongside this idea, such as wine tasting presentations, the technology now used in winemaking itself, new technological advances in agriculture and, of course, anything to do with ecology, since there are also organic wines.
So if you already work in tourism, run a travel agency or have a restaurant somewhere along a wine route, you may have a good business opportunity right in front of you.
Further reading
