At the Zuccari Hall in Palazzo Giustiniani, the Honorable Dario Stefàno and Donatella Cinelli Colombini , respectively president and director of CESEO (Center for Wine and Olive Oil Tourism Studies at Lumsa University), presented the new wine tourism manual , "Wine & Tourism. Theory and Practice of Wine Tourism in the Cellar" (Agra Editrice, edited by Sergio Auricchio).
The event, which opened with institutional greetings from Senator Pier Ferdinando Casini , was attended by Minister of Tourism Gianmarco Mazzi , who has expressed great interest in wine tourism since taking office. The Minister highlighted wine tourism's role as a key driver for expanding Italy's tourism offerings. It is a formidable attraction for international tourism, bringing the added value of being paired with key elements such as a diverse landscape, a unique artistic and cultural heritage, and a wide-ranging and regionally-focused gastronomic offering.
In a video message to the authors, Minister Francesco Lollobrigida emphasized how " Stefàno and Cinelli Colombini's new book celebrates the inseparable bond between land, culture, hospitality, and identity, through an exceptional product like wine. I have often emphasized ," the Minister continued, "how agri-food, wine first and foremost, and tourism in Italy do not travel on parallel tracks but are two sides of the same coin, a single, great value chain that defines our uniqueness in the world. The book's title, Vino & Turismo, encapsulates a fundamental formula for the future of our heritage. "
The volume is the result of the activities of CESEO , the Observatory established in collaboration with the Movimento Turismo del Vino (Wine Tourism Movement ). The panel of speakers, moderated by RAI host Federico Quaranta , included contributions from MTV President Violante Gardini Cinelli Colombini , LUMSA Rector Francesco Bonini, and, via livestream, Paul Wagner , one of the world's leading experts on wine hospitality.
"With this volume, we wanted to fill a gap in the wine tourism education landscape," said Dario Stefàno , professor of Tourism Management and Marketing at LUMSA University. "Wine is now an extraordinary factor in enhancing local areas, capable of generating economic growth, employment, and attractiveness. At the same time, it contributes to enhancing tourism and represents a concrete opportunity for wineries to diversify and optimize revenue. Translating this potential into stable and sustainable development requires expertise, professionalism, and the ability to innovate. This manual was created to support students, professionals, and producers in this challenge, offering concrete tools for building increasingly qualified hospitality and transforming a winery visit into a truly cultural and identity-building experience. Today, wine is not just consumed, but also talked about, shared, and experienced."
"I focused on the practical management of tourist wineries, providing more up-to-date and diverse information than previous books on wine tourism, " explained Donatella Cinelli Colombini , " emphasizing the rapid pace of change in an economic sector that is growing 9% annually in Italy and as much as 13% globally. Wine tourism isn't just a new form of travel: it's a driving force for promoting local areas, transforming wine into experience and storytelling, building a bridge between producers and travelers, between the beauty of the landscapes and the country's most authentic identity. But it's also a tool for diversifying wineries' sales channels, through direct producer-consumer relationships."
Wine tourism in Italy is a sector involving approximately 20,000 wineries open to the public (8-10,000 of which are well-equipped to accommodate guests), attracting over 20 million visitors at a steadily increasing national growth rate (approximately 9% annually). Precisely because of this rapid growth, companies in the sector are constantly seeking trained personnel or training opportunities for those who have already been employed and are self-taught in wine hospitality. The skills most in demand today are foreign languages, communication, event organization, and marketing management (both pre- and post-visit experiences, through tools such as wine clubs and e-commerce). Indeed, wine tourism is emerging as a rapidly expanding phenomenon that requires, now more than ever, qualified professionals to translate development into genuine sustainable growth, both for the regions and for individual wineries.
However, growth brings with it new structural challenges: CESEO data , presented at Vinitaly 2026, highlights extremely high international demand, so much so that for 30% of the wineries in the Wine Tourism Movement, foreigners represent more than half of the total visitors. The real challenge, in fact, is no longer attracting visitors but enabling them to truly connect with the companies, in terms of physical and online accessibility.
The manual also intercepts the most recent evolutions in wine hospitality presented by the Movement in the latest edition of Cantine Aperte, which highlighted how the cellar experience is increasingly going beyond simple tasting to transform itself into a widespread laboratory of well-being and sustainability .
Worth noting is the section dedicated to wine tourism from other countries, a sector with which it is right to engage, especially given the increasingly global and competitive nature of the offering.
“ Tourists ,” emphasizes Violante Gardini Cinelli Colombini , president of the Wine Tourism Movement, “ seek direct contact with nature, and in this sense, the vineyard becomes a space in which to slow down and reconnect with oneself and the environment through outdoor experiences and regenerative tourism , as demonstrated by the large participation of almost 100,000 people in the latest edition of Cantine Aperte last week .”
The offering must therefore be diversified and made authentic by placing the enhancement of the country's wine-growing and landscape heritage back at the center.
"Wine & Tourism: Theory and Practice of Wine Tourism in the Cellar" therefore aims to be a solid compass for guiding this evolution, offering wineries, but especially students and the new generations of industry professionals, a new perspective with guidelines for transforming hospitality into a strategic development asset, where investing in the skills of professionals and breaking down barriers to accessibility become crucial to determining the future of the sector.
