Verona 14 April 2026. The Vinitaly Tourism experience continues with great success. The project promoted by Vinitaly in collaboration with Wine Tourism Hub, established itself during the Show as one of the most dynamic and popular landmarks focusing on the evolution of hospitality in wineries, direct-to-consumer sales and new wine tourism perspectives. The area is hosting 15 conferences, 30 experiential tastings and daily networking events, confirming how wine tourism is by now one of the most recurring and relevant buzzwords in the sector and increasingly recognized as a strategic lever for the competitiveness and growth of wineries.
An initial aspect that came firmly to the fore during Vinitaly Tourism concerns the role of hospitality managers, the protagonists of a national survey involving 176 professionals in Italian wine tourism. The survey clearly shows that the main challenge facing wineries today is how to bring tourists to the cellar, indicated by 36.8% of respondents. The main obstacles to the development of wine tourism include financial resources (31.6%) and the need to develop more collaborations with local authorities (27.6%). In more general terms, the most mentioned limitations as regards growth of this sector in Italy are the fragmentation of the system (36.8%), infrastructure (30.3%) and poor national marketing (25%). A snapshot portraying a sector with great potential but which requires more integration, vision, and tools if it is to grow.
A specific focus also involved tour operators, through B2B meetings organized in collaboration with Winedering, involving approximately 30 Italian companies and as many operators in the sector, with the aim of promoting and consolidating this kind of service for the wine tourism offering. A particularly significant occasion that will see further development is scheduled tomorrow, Wednesday 15 April, when buyers and tour operators will meet the companies taking part, further strengthening dialogue between supply and demand. This comparison is particularly useful even in the light of data emerging from the survey suggesting that tour operators are asking Italian wineries to meet certain requirements by now considered to be fundamental: fluent English-speaking guides (76%), appropriate and clearly started group capacity (63%), flexible visiting times, including weekends (54%), and transparent fees for the trade channel (41%). The main difficulties reported included slow or no response, unclear pricing, language barriers, rigid timetables, and the absence of online booking. This framework clearly outlines how strengthening dialogue with tourism intermediaries today also requires better defined standards, greater commercial accessibility, and more organizational capacity on the part of wineries.
The data published in the report confirm the central role of wine tourism as an economic and commercial asset. The Wine Suite 2026 Wine Tourism and Direct-to-Consumer Sales Report was presented in the context of Vinitaly Tourism. The report highlights that in 2025 the average price of a wine tourism experience was 39.4 euros per person, while the average ticket for bookings was 136.6 euros. It emerges that 43.3% of visitors come from abroad, a sign of growing internationalisation in demand, while the average number of experiences and events offered by wineries grew to7 per year, demonstrating an increasingly structured and articulated offering.
The report also highlighted the market dimension of this area. Wine tourism in italy sees 15 million visitors to wine cellars and expenditure of 3 billion euros , while more structured wineries posted growth of 16.8% for annual visitors and 21% for direct post-visit sales. This confirm how well-organized hospitality can be effective drive the profitability of wine companies and how the winery experience is increasingly a crucial point of contact between brands, regions, and consumers.
This approach to content, comparison and vision also involved 15 conferences hosted in the Vinitaly Tourism area with contributions by Italian and international experts discussing some of the most innovative and current topics for the sector. Some highly significant insights came from American testimony about how Wine Clubs function in the United States, the leading market in this field, and action highlighting the importance of managing food intolerances issues in the world of tastings and wine tourism hospitality. Different topics nevertheless moving in the same direction: make wine tourism an increasingly mature, inclusive, and structured sector that generates real value for companies.
In this context, Vinitaly Tourism, organized by Vinitaly in collaboration with Wine Tourism Hub confirms its successful status capable of intercepting a genuine need in the sector and transforming it into a venue for content, relationships, discussion and perspective. A clear message emerges from this edition: wine tourism is no longer a secondary concept but one of the most promising directions for the future of Italian wine.