It is great news for Jerez. The annual report on wine tourism produced by the association of wine towns in Spain (Acevin) confirms the Wine and Brandy Route of the Jerez Area as the most visited in 2016 of the 27 certified routes in the country.
According to data compiled by Acevin, the Wine and Brandy Route of the Jerez Area last year received a total of 501,783 visits compared to the 486,388 received by the Wine and Cava Route of Penedés. The latter has now been unseated as the first wine tourism destination in the country after visits to Jerez increased by 8% or rather more than 50,000 in 2016.
501,783 VISITORS. THE JEREZ AREA NOW LEADS THE RANKINGS OF THE WINE ROUTES IN SPAIN AFTER ACHIEVING A RECORD NUMBER OF VISITS. THE NATIONAL TOTAL WAS 2.7 MILLION. SPANISH WINE TOURISM IS MAINTAINING ITS UPWARD TRAJECTORY WITH GROWTH OF 21% AND 54.2 MILLION EUROS IN VOLUME OF BUSINESS.WINE TOURIST SPENDING GREW BY OVER 10% OR OVER 5 MILLION EUROS IN 2016.
The results of the study, which covers 24 of the 27 Wine Routes of Spain, confirm that national wine tourism is in good health with over 2.7 million visits – over half a million more than the previous year – representing growth of 21.02%.
Behind Jerez and Penedés came Ribera del Duero, Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa, Empordá and Rías Baixas as well as Calatayud, a route which was only incorporated into the wine routes club during 2016, and which in such a short space of time has managed to achieve fifth place in the ranking.
The breakdown of the seasonality of the visits over the year shows that wine tourists prefer to travel in autumn and spring. Most visited in October (322.732) and September (284,193), closely followed by May (283,315) and August (279,214). March, June and July also show higher figures than previous years with over 200,000.
The association of the Wine and Brandy Route of the Jerez Area celebrates the return to first place after two years thanks to a record figure of over half a million visits received by the 32 bodegas and 3 wine museums which are members of the association.
In the words of César Saldaña, president of the Jerez route,
We must congratulate all the municipalities, bodegas, wine museums and associated tourism companies that we are again leader in Spanish wine tourism.
The Acevin report also collects parameters relevant to the price of a standard visit and the average spend per tourist both at the bodegas and wine museums and wine interpretation centres, which allows an approximate calculation to be made of the economic impact on the Wine Routes of Spain generated by all these visits.
In line with general tourism results for the country last year, wine tourism figures are very positive, since allied to growth of 21% in the number of visits, tourism spending increased by 5.2 million euros as against last year.
Volume of business in the routes analysed came to over 54.2 million euros, 10.66% up on last year. And that is not taking into account spending in accommodation, restaurants and other related businesses which form part of the Wine Routes.
