The first-ever Wine Tourism Day in North America will take place on Saturday, May 11th, 2013 with wineries, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses offering a variety of events to the public throughout North America. Gervasi Vineyard will be offering a special Celebrate Vino! event to mark this day locally.
“There are now over 7500 wineries in 205 American Viticultural Areas, 38 authorized wine appellations in Canada, and another 40 appellations in Mexico”, says Allan Wright, president of Zephyr Adventures, the active wine tour company organizing Wine Tourism Day. “Most of these wine regions and many of these wineries are dependent on visitors who sleep in hotel beds, eat in restaurants, and buy wine from cellar doors. Wine tourism is very important to the success of many local economies and is a subject worth commemorating.”
Locally, Gervasi Vineyard is offering a Celebrate Vino! Event from 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. at its location at 1700 55th Street NE, Canton, Ohio.
“We are delighted to be participating in the first-ever Wine Tourism Day in North America. We will be offering hard hat tours of our new winery and wine bar (opening in October), vineyard tours, as well as some wine tasting events. We are looking forward to it and hope our guests enjoy this special event,” said Scott Swaldo, General Manager of Gervasi Vineyard.
The idea for a Wine Tourism Day comes from Europe, where the European Day of Wine Tourism has been ongoing since 2009. Attendees of the 2012 Wine Tourism Conference, an annual gathering of the industry’s leaders, discussed bringing the concept to North America.
Wine Tourism Day is supported by a number of industry partners including LocalWineEvents.com, Touring and Tasting Marketing & Media, WineAmerica, the Wine Industry Network, the Wine Tourism Conference, and Zephyr Adventures, in addition to wine and tourism associations in wine regions throughout North America, including the Ohio Wine Producers Association.
For more information and to find a list of events on Wine Tourism Day, please visit www.WineTourismDay.org.