Pilar Mazo
Logroño, (EFE) .
This has been detailed to EFE by the president of Enoturismo Chile, Claudio Cilveti, one of the speakers at the Encounter on Talent in Enotourism, which is held in the Rioja city of Haro and which on March 23 and 24 brought together some twenty experts from wine regions of various countries to discuss the future of wine tourism and training in the sector.
According to Cilveti, “wine tourism requires greater professionalization because wine is a part of the concept of wine tourism” which, from his point of view, unites “three fundamental concepts: wine, tourism and gastronomy”.
“Those three angles of this triangle have to be very well established academically,” explained the president of this public-private entity, which brings together the main actors for the development of wine tourism in Chile, a country with more than 14 valleys with a diversity of wine regions and highly differentiated characteristics.
Sometimes, he has specified, in the world of wine tourism “one makes the mistake of overweighting the technical knowledge of the oenological part of the wine and loses track of the tourist part, which is often the one that manages to engage and attract a much more diverse audience.
This triangle has to be “a balance because, in addition, gastronomy is essential to give that color and that special characteristic to the territory”, has detailed Cilveti, who has dedicated his entire life to developing Chilean wine in large wineries, among them, Viña San Pedro Tarapacá, considered the second most important in the country.
For this reason, he has highlighted the interest of this type of congress, such as the one held this Thursday and Friday in La Rioja, which is the preamble to the 7th World Conference on Wine Tourism of the World Tourism Organization, scheduled for the first time in Spain. next November in La Rioja.
Wine tourism, source of income
These types of events, he said, try to delve into “the necessary balancing of this triangle so that it is not loaded only on one of its sides” and that it requires greater professionalization in its three concepts to avoid its imbalance.
From his point of view, the Rioja Qualified Designation of Origin (DOCa), which is shared by the communities of La Rioja, the Basque Country and Navarre, is one of the world’s “first level” wine-producing regions in wine tourism.
Chile, where he holds the management of the main wine export association and chairs the Food Export Council, has learned and is learning from the development of wine tourism in Rioja, as well as in Bordeaux (France), Napa Valley, in California (United States). and Mendoza (Argentina), which have “high development in this regard.”
Cilveti has also ensured that the professionalization of wine tourism and training in this sector depends on “the reality of each town or each winery and cannot be generalized”, although it has highlighted the “high level” of these regions in the balance of wine , tourism and gastronomy.
He has described as “enviable” the quality of the professionals who are trained in tourism and specialize in the oenological field in regions such as Rioja, which bring together wineries with a centuries-old tradition, such as those located in Haro; and in which there are wineries or companies with the capacity to develop a highly professional wine tourism area.
However, “it must also be considered that there are very small wineries that, many times, do not have the capacity to train their professionals in a way as dedicated as in this area” to tour tourism, he said.
These small wineries open their doors to the public in a less professional way, in which, normally, the training is more technical from the oenological or viticultural point of view and they learn in tourism; while there are some large ones that have a more developed tourist facet.
For this reason, he believes it is important that there are entities that are involved in the coordination of wine tourism and that are a support and an umbrella for the promotion of this activity as a source of income in these wine-growing areas. EFE.
