Working together with Swiss Wine Promotion, Switzerland Tourism ST put together the country’s first overview of wine tourism offers. The new MySwitzerland.com/winetourism platform was an important pillar in the 2019 autumn campaign. The online campaign raised the profile of the various wine-based offerings considerably: around 23,500 visits to this new wine platform were registered in September and October 2019. It is available in six languages, including Dutch and Spanish, as well as the official national languages.

ST’s Director, Martin Nydegger presents Swiss Wine Tourism at the STM in 2019.

The Switzerland Travel Mart (STM) 2019 gave ST the opportunity to introduce Swiss wine tourism to an audience of international travel experts: 460 international tourism buyers from 50 different markets discovered a whole new side of Switzerland as a holiday destination at one of the most important Swiss events for key account management.

30 guided wine experiences bookable online 
Today’s visitors are looking to experience things for themselves. This means that they mostly plan and book their travel (experiences) online. The 30 guided wine experiences (as per end of 2019) cater to these needs. They can all be booked directly online. 

The new wine tourism hub offers even more, however: an interactive map of the six wine-growing regions reveals exciting facts and figures. Videos including short interviews with winegrowers provide an introduction to all regions. There are tips for tastings, wine trails or bike routes through the vineyards – as well as a selection of the right hotels for the best experience of all wine regions.

Potential for non-mainstream destinations
The combination of sensory pleasures and attractive landscapes is a recipe for success in wine tourism. Alsace and California are prime examples of this. However, this is also relevant for visitors to Switzerland: 94% of visitors surveyed said they were interested in wine (Source: Tourism Monitor Switzerland 2017).

British daily newspaper “The Guardian” presented Switzerland as a worthwhile wine destination, referring to it as an insider secret. Here, connoisseur travellers, can visit Lavaux, one of the 16 wine regions worldwide designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The country is home to the highest vineyard slopes in Europe and the smallest vineyard in the world. 250 grape varieties are cultivated in Switzerland’s six wine regions, producing 79 million litres of wine each year. Only 1.6% of Switzerland’s wine is exported. In other words, if you want to try Swiss wines, you probably need to visit the country.    

Facts and figures
Autumn campaign   2019 2018
Budget CHF million 3.7 4.2
Share of total budget % 4.6 4.6
Target markets   CH, D, I CH, DE, IT, FR
Page views MySwitzerland.com*   0.9 million 391,422
Top advertising and marketing contacts million 152 114
Media contacts (readers, viewers, listeners) million 868 290
Participants on ST press trips   85 65
Top Media Articles   270 111
*Only views to pages with specific content for the autumn campaign are counted.