Annual Global Wine Tourism Report 2025
Wine tourism has seen significant growth over the past decade, emerging as a profitable and dynamic branch of the global wine industry. As a driver of sustainable development, it also plays a key role in diversifying rural economies, creating jobs, and bringing tangible benefits to local communities. It fosters the preservation of cultural and natural heritage, while promoting more responsible and inclusive tourism models. However, despite its rising importance, both academics and industry professionals continue to face challenges due to a lack of reliable data
and insights. There is a clear information gap in the field of wine tourism at the international level, which limits the ability of policymakers and industry to formulate evidence-based public policies and business plans.
To address this need, Geisenheim University, in collaboration with WineTourism.com, UN Tourism, the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV), and the Great Wine Capitals Global Network (GWC), has launched a global research initiative.
– Professor Gergely Szolnoki, Geisenheim University
“Our common goal is to provide valuable findings directly to wineries and tourism organizations through an annual report. This year's survey focuses on innovation and emerging trends that have fundamentally reshaped the wine tourism landscape recently."
The strength of this initiative lies in the collaboration between international organizations, academic institutions and industry partners — a unique cooperation bringing together diverse expertise and global perspectives.
In Collaboration with
Key Insights
- Economic Impact: Wine tourism is a key driver of regional development, strengthening rural economies and communities.
- Profitability: Two-thirds of wineries report wine tourism as profitable, generating around 25% of total revenue.
- Sustainability: Wine tourism is firmly embedded in business strategies, with two-thirds rating it as important or very important.
- Engagement: Staff shortages and time constraints remain barriers, yet 25% plan to enter wine tourism and 50% are considering it.
- Regional Growth: Visitor numbers are rising in Europe, while 41% of overseas wineries report declines.
- Visitor Profiles: The core audience remains 45–65 years, but younger travellers (25–44) are gaining significance, driven by interest in education, sustainability, and gastronomy.
- Challenges: Economic pressures, falling wine consumption, regulations, labour shortages, and digitalisation demand adaptive responses.
- Core Activities: Tastings, cellar visits, and vineyard tours continue to form the backbone, offering authentic experiences and personal connections.
- Trends: Growing demand for authentic, local, culinary, eco-friendly, and nature-based offers, reinforced by strong digital engagement.
- Strategies: Innovation is driven by storytelling, social media, food pairings, local partnerships, education, and cultural events.
- Innovation & Investment: Wine tourism is widely regarded as essential for competitiveness, though actual investment levels vary.
- Outlook: Half of wineries plan further investment, most anticipate growth, and nearly two-thirds see wine tourism as a resilience tool.
The full report, as well as the executive summary and updates regarding the events, can be seen at https://www.hs-geisenheim.de/gwtreport and https://www.untourism.int/global-wine-tourism-report-2025
Presentation of Results
- 9th UN Tourism Global Conference on Wine Tourism - October 6–7, 2025, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
- Great Wine Capitals International Conference - November 6, 2025, Bordeaux, France
- 65th International DWV Congress - December 1–3, 2025, Mainz, Germany
- Global Wine Tourism Report Presentation - January 26, 2026, 6:00 p.m. - free webinar
People Behind the Project
Prof. Dr. Gergely Szolnoki, initiator of the study and Professor of Market Research at Hochschule Geisenheim University
Catherine Leparmentier, General Secretary, Great Wine Capitals Global Network
Sandra Carvao, Director of Market Intelligence, Policies and Competitiveness, UN Tourism
Calle Nilsson, Co-Founder and CEO of Winetourism.com
Visit our Industry Reports page to explore more research on the Wine Tourism industry.