Abrau-Durso Sums Up The First Wine Tourism Forum

From May 12 to 13, the largest event of the enotourism industry in Russia took place at Abrau-Durso — the First Wine Tourism Forum. The event was organized by the Abrau-Durso Tourism Center supported by the Global Wine Tourism Organization (GWTO) and the International Center of Wine and Gastronomy. For the first time, more than 400 experts — representatives of wineries, tour operators, authorities and other market actors — met at one venue to discuss current problems and strategies for the development of wine tourism.

The Forum opened with welcoming address by Dmitriy Chernyshenko, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, which was read out by Boris Titov, owner of the Abrau-Durso Group of Companies. "The rich program of the First Wine Tourism Forum will afford an opportunity to exchange the best international business practices in the field of tourism, as well as conclude partner agreements. I am sure that this event will contribute to further strengthening the image of Russia as a hospitable and comfortable for recreation country."

Boris Titov, for his part, addressed the participants and guests of the event, noting that more and more initiatives are being implemented in Russia for the development of wine tourism, including important measures of State support for Russian winemakers have been taken. Also, the owner of the Abrau-Durso Group of Companies added: "All over the world, winemaking gives an additional opportunity to attract tourists, and enotourism, in turn, contributes to the growth of wine farms. Today we see more and more wineries that amaze not only with the high quality of their products, but also with architectural solutions, beauty and entourage. We can observe how large farms are transformed, small enterprises and new tourist routes appear."

Further, an appeal was read over to the Forum participants from Veniamin Kondratyev, Governor of the Krasnodar Territory: "The wine industry is the real pride of our region. Relying on many years of experience, scientific research and advanced technologies, our enterprises not only produce world-class quality products, but also offer ample opportunities for the development of wine tourism, which is gaining popularity from year to year." The appeal from the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory was read over by Mikhail Zaritskiy, Acting Minister of Resorts, Tourism and Olympic Heritage of the Krasnodar Territory.

The ambitious business program of the event was attended by Jose Antonio Vidal, President of the Global Wine Tourism Organization (GWTO), who noted the importance of enotourism at the international level. In his report, he highly appreciated the development potential of the sphere and the importance of steadily improving the level of professionalism and quality of services provided for each guest.

Irina Fedina, Deputy Director of the Department of Food and Processing Industry of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, in her speech stressed the exceptional importance of promoting wine from Russian grapes in state policy, which is also facilitated by the development of wine tourism. The expert also noted the need to allow the creation of tourist infrastructure near wine-making facilities at the legislative level.

One of the key and most discussed topics of the Forum was the comprehensive development of enotourism in Russia, as well as the legal framework, changes in which regarding the regulation of capital construction standards remain crucial for many market actors. Aleksey Kondratenko, member of the Russian Federal Assembly Federation Committee for Agrarian and Food Policy and Environmental Management, also spoke about new opportunities for creating tourist facilities at wineries. He noted that an initiative to amend the Law on Viticulture and Winemaking in the Russian Federation has already been submitted to the State Duma, which makes it possible to place capital construction facilities, non-capital buildings and structures intended for wine production and the provision of wine tourism services on sites included in the vineland register, including farmlands. Since a significant part of wineries in Russia are small businesses, the opportunity to organize wine tourism within their own winery will allow them to promote their products in a new, effective way.

Irina Goncharova, Vice President for Tourism and Special Projects of the Abrau-Durso Group of Companies, presented the impressive results of the work of the largest enotourism center in Russia — the Abrau-Durso Tourism Center. Special attention in the speech was paid to the most pressing issues of the industry: the unification of market actors, legislation, including restrictions in advertising tools, lack of personnel.

Special guests and participants of the event were representatives of diplomatic missions of four foreign countries at once, including Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay to the Russian Federation Daniel Ruben Castillos-Gomez, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Mexican States to the Russian Federation Eduardo Villegas Mejias, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Dominican Republic Frank Hans Dannenberg Castellanos, Head of the Department of Economy and Trade of the Embassy of the Republic of Peru in the Russian Federation Egorov Ramirez Hinojosa.

Foreign guests of the event — Director of the GWTO in the People's Republic of China Jiangwei Jiang, Director of the GWTO in the Republic of Uzbekistan Sergey Danilov, Director of the GWTO Academy of Wine Tourism in Portugal Bebiana Monteiro, Director of the GWTO Academy of Wine Tourism in Chile Jorge Espinosa, as well as Vice President of the GWTO in Latin America Pablo Singerman, Marketing Director of the Tourism Development and Promotion Agency in the Republic of Turkey Ceylan Sensoy and others — took part in the work of the Forum and shared their experience and practice of enotourism business development.

During the panel discussion, topical issues of the industry were discussed: promotion of enotouristic regions of Russia, the law on advertising, economic aspects of efficiency, certification of wine guides, creation of a unified wine route map, shortage of qualified personnel and much more. Special attention was paid to the development of transport accessibility of certain regions and tools to increase the tourist flow. Leonid Gelibterman, Vice President of the Global Wine Tourism Organization (GWTO) Eurasia, noted the achievements of Russian enotourism in recent years, as well as the need for a stable increase in the level of service. Leonid Popovich, Director of the GWTO Russia, stressed the special importance of cooperation of market players – only by uniting, it will be possible to achieve positive changes. 

Within the framework of the Forum, another significant event for domestic enotourism took place — official certificates of joining the Global Wine Tourism Organization (GWTO) were presented to the first three Russian wineries. Diplomas were presented to representatives of the Krasnodar Territory — Abrau-Durso and Château de Talu, as well as Crimean wine tourism center WINEPARK. Joining the international association will provide opportunities for sharing experiences, holding events and developing partnerships with other GWTO participants.

A special panel discussion was devoted to the topic of training the talent pool in the field of wine tourism, where experts discussed possible ways to solve the problem of the lack of competent personnel. An important step on this path is the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Southern Federal University (Rostov-on-Don) and the Abrau-Durso Tourism Center, the purpose of which was strategic cooperation in the scientific and educational sphere.

The second day of the Forum was devoted to the interaction of wineries with tour operators and wine guides: in the format of a live discussion, issues of interaction between industry representatives were discussed, growth points were determined, and partnership proposals were also made.

The First Wine Tourism Forum brought together caring experts and professionals who presented their vision of the current issues and development of wine tourism in Russia — an industry that has significant potential to become an important part of the image of Russia and domestic winemaking in the international arena. The Wine Tourism Forum is planned to become an annual meeting place for like-minded people and peers.

The media sponsors of the event were Vedomosti business publication, Kompaniya business publication, Snob media project, Robb Report magazine, Vokrug Sveta magazine, Ridus.ru online media, Komsomolskaya Pravda media group, Simple Wine News magazine, KT SUE Teleradiokompaniya NTK, 50 Best Tastes of Russia online gastronomy guide, Vino I Lyudi and MinVin expert Internet projects.

For more details about the First Wine Tourism Forum, visit http://enotourismforum.ru /

Reference:

Abrau-Durso Tourism Center is one of the important facilities responsible for the tourist flow of the Krasnodar Territory. Russian winery Abrau-Durso has the status of the most visited by tourists detached winery in Russia, as well as the most visited tourist facility in Novorossiysk. In 2022, Abrau-Durso hosted about 500,000 guests, of whom more than 200,000 attended enotouristic programs. The Abrau-Durso Tourism Center was the first among all domestic enterprises to become a member of the Global Wine Tourism Organization (GWTO) in 2022.                                 

The Abrau Resort offers its guests a variety of tourist destinations: sightseeing, enogastronomy, MICE, sports and entertainment, wellness, wine, beach and many others. Enogastronomic festivals and business events, sailing regattas and stage performances are held within the territory of the resort.

The Global Wine Tourism Organization (GWTO) is an international association that includes enogastrotour organizations, associations, private companies and institutions, whose goal is to accelerate the social and economic development of wine tourism. The mission is a comprehensive partnership to develop an inclusive and sustainable management model for wine and tourism enterprises. Members of the organization exchange experience, get advice, assistance in training and marketing promotion, conduct and participate in wine tourism business events. As a result of their activities, enogastronomy becomes not just a place of interest, but an engine of the economy of producing countries and a tool for attracting tourists.

The International Center of Wine and Gastronomy (ICWAG), led by the GWTO Vice-President, organizes events aimed at improving the general enogastronomic culture of end consumers, improving the professional level of specialists in the hospitality, alcohol market, food and soft drinks market, as well as the development and implementation of special projects in the field of gastronomic tourism in the regions of the Russian Federation and abroad.
The ICWAG solves for its partners a set of issues related to the promotion of high-quality alcoholic drinks and food products from around the world in the Russian market and Russian products to the markets of foreign countries, in fact, performing the functions of a specialized marketing agency in this respect.