Zephyr Adventures has been showing people a good time for over 17 years. Whether it’s riding a bike through the countryside or hiking through vineyards, Zephyr Adventures usually says Cheers! with a pint of beer or glass of wine in hand at the end of the active day.
Given our penchant for the good life, it’s no surprise that we are also professional promoters of wine tourism, food blogging, and wine and beer blogging. We host five different conferences every year. Wine tourism is near and dear to our hearts and we just returned from the Wine Tourism Conference in San Luis Obispo County in Paso Robles, CA. The 2014 WTC marked the 4th year this conference has been in existence. It’s purpose: to bring wine and tourism leaders together every year in an exciting location every year and provide hard information about the important and growing industry of wine tourism that wineries and wine businesses can bring home to positively affect their performance. Travel Paso Robles and Visit San Luis Obispo County were the regional hosts for the conference which happened November 12-14, 2014 in the bucolic wine country town of Paso Robles in California.
We organized 2.5 days of program content for Wine Tourism Conference attendees including Workshops on how to improve your Mobile Marketing and Create & Grow Your Wine Tour Operator Business; a Keynote Speech about the wine industry working with the millennial generation, and Break-Out Sessions that covered a number of business savvy takeaways. Of course, we left room in the busy conference schedule to enjoy a number of the superb wines from the 11 newly appointed AVAs in the Paso Robles wine region…
The Wine Tourism Conference and this upcoming season of thanks reminds us to give a great big shout out to our wine traveling friends and family.
Wine tourism is critical to wine industry profitability. Just one example: a survey conducted by Silicon Valley Bank found 45% of wine revenue in Napa County comes from direct sales, much of that from tasting rooms. 45%!! That’s a lot! Those of you who have joined Zephyr Adventures on tours through wine country in the U.S. and abroad know we all contribute to the success of the wine industry in some way, shape, or form while we on an adventure. So, pick up that glass of Malbec, raise it high, and “santé” to yourself! Thanks to all Zephyr Alum who have traveled with us through wine country over the years!