138 WINERY VISITED, 23 STATES AND 7900 MILES TRAVELED: THIS IS THE CONCLUSION OF THE WINE MERIDIAN TOUR IN THE USA

The International Wine Tour in the United States of Wine Meridian has officially ended: the month-long journey that saw the newspaper embark on an immersive journey to discover the US wine tourism model.

On board a camper Wine Meridian visited over 130 wineries in 23 different states , being able to closely observe what makes the renowned American welcome different from the Italian one, but also the great variety of offers that can be found within this country.

Food and wine tourism is experiencing a moment of splendor all over the world and Italian wineries, through projects such as the International Wine Tours, have the opportunity to have a direct look at trends, evolutions and the best solutions to properly welcome. For this reason, initiatives of this caliber prove to be fundamental journalistic activities for bringing continuous innovation to the wine sector.

After the tours in Italy, Europe and South Africa, the United States proved to be an obligatory destination to increase the awareness of Italian companies on the opportunities that the wine tourism business can offer. The US one is certainly an innovative wine tourism model , as well as being a highly functional and sustainable system. Wine clubs, merchandising and heavy investments in direct sales are just some of the approaches that the wineries of the United States exploit in their favor, and which in Italy are still struggling to be accepted and understood.

Wine Meridian, during the weeks spent in the USA, managed to capture the nuances of American hospitality and enclose them in a format that had never been created before. The first person visits to the company and the interviews with over a hundred US managers and owners made it possible to elaborate a very important thought for Italian wine tourism.

<< It was a very intense experience, in many respects even difficult - underlined Lavinia Furlani, president of Wine Meridian - but which allowed us to touch on the one hand the different welcoming models of American wineries (both small and large) and at the same time, to understand the needs of wine tourists who flock to American wineries in large numbers. In fact, we are convinced that the only way to understand the real opportunities offered by wine tourism is to directly experience the various wine experiences and understand how our wineries can build a welcoming strategy suited to their identity and the target they want to intercept>>.

<< In addition to understanding the true "wine tourism soul" of the USA - added Fabio Piccoli, managing director of Wine Meridian - this tour allowed us to deepen the current dynamics of the most important international wine market. The USA is also experiencing a phase of profound transformation both in terms of consumption trends and attitudes on the part of the import and distribution world. This information will also be invaluable for building our editorial content and on the training front>>.

The data, testimonials and concrete examples collected over the last month have been concentrated in a single training course: the Wine Tourism Campus will be launched in October, a course available to professionals in the world of wine who want to obtain in a single authoritative source all the tools that are currently available to build an impeccable wine tourism offer