Switzerland Tourism also promoted Swiss Wine Week in New York via Instagram.

Together with Swiss Wine Promotion, the national promotional body for Swiss wines, Switzerland Tourism (ST) transformed New York City into a showcase for fine wines from Swiss vineyards in June 2023. At the “Swiss Wine Week”, tastings and masterclasses were organised in various restaurants and wine bars across the city, including in Manhattan. At the same time, the visually stunning and gigantic billboards in the well-known Times Square prominently displayed the Swiss wine tourism offers. The week-long presence on the electronic billboards in Times Square impressively resulted in more than 3.3 million impressions. The corresponding story on Instagram generated 20,000 impressions.

ST thus succeeded in profitably integrating a strategic partner in the promotion of tourism in North America. ST and Swiss Wine Promotion were not only able to jointly present fine Swiss wines to New York’s wine fans and professionals from the retail and catering sectors, but were also able to raise awareness of Swiss wine tourism among potential guest groups with high affinity.

Wine tourism potential – especially in North America

Wine tourism is becoming increasingly popular as a branch of tourism: According to findings from the Tourism Monitor Switzerland (TMS 2017), over 90% of guests surveyed are interested in wine. What is new is that guests no longer just want to see a vineyard or taste wine; they also want to get involved, participate and experience something in wine tourism. And almost half of those surveyed have even booked a wine tourism offering before (tasting, visit to the vineyard, helping with the harvest, etc.). According to these findings, the North American market is the ideal place for wine tourism promotions: According to TMS 2017, travellers from the USA and Canada were the target group with the highest affinity (alongside guests from Australia and New Zealand) – interest in wine tourism was higher than in any of the other markets surveyed.