Wine tourism comprises 13% of tourists in New Zealand

New research about the wine tourism sector released by Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) reveals that thirteen per cent of all international holiday travellers visit a winery or participate in wine tourism activities annually. The markets that provide the most wine tourists to New Zealand include Australia, USA, UK and Germany.

Food and Wine is a priority Special Interest area and TNZ is focusing marketing activity on attracting more international tourists to New Zealand to participate in food and wine based holidays. The new research provides an overview of tourists that visit wineries as an activity during their visit to New Zealand, and the report also includes trends and characteristics of these tourists.

Wine tourists are defined as international visitors, aged 15 years and over, who participate in some form of winery visit at least once while travelling in New Zealand. Although 18 is the legal purchase age in New Zealand, data collection groups visitors into age groups of 15 years and under, and 15-24 years. Use of data from the 15-24 age groups acknowledges that a percentage of visitors will be those aged 15-18 years, accompanying older friends and relatives to New Zealand wineries.

Winery tourists spend significantly more than a typical visitor during their trip to New Zealand: $3,700 compared to $2,800. The international wine tourist’s length of stay is an average of four days longer than the average tourist’s length of stay. The most common accommodation types used by wine visitors are hotels and motels.

International wine visitors tend to be more interested than others, in art and cultural tourism activities during their stay in New Zealand. TNZ’s other priority Special Interest areas include Cycling, Golf, Ski, Fly-fishing and Walking and Hiking.