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Tourism: eNOTOURISM CAN ATTRACT FOREIGN TOURISTS TO ROMANIA
* In Romania there are over 140 active wineries and more than 30 of them practise wine tourism.
Romania is placed 13th in a global top of wine producers, according to preliminary data recently published by the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV). At the moment our country has 250 registered wine cellars, but only 140 of them are active in producing and selling bottled wine. Some 30 wine cellars also offer wine tourism.
“The number of wineries in Romania is constantly growing by 5-10 units per year,” says Alina Iancu, founder of ReVino.ro and CrameRomania.ro. Romania currently occupies 5th place in Europe in terms of the covered area of over 200,000 hectares of vines cultivated and 6th place in terms of production in the European Union. We have growth potential and interest from both the cellars and tourists, so that our country’s wine tourism, which was non-existent until a few years ago, can develop.”
In Romania, the wine tourism experienced a significant development, helped by investments made by wineries and demand from customers for this type of personalized travel-oriented experiences. The development potential is big, wine enthusiasts being attracted to visit the vineyards and cellars, to talk with oenologists and, not least, to discover Romania’s beautiful landscape. Moreover, old mansions near vineyards that have been refurbished and converted into accommodation attract domestic and foreign tourists with their stories.
“Until about five years ago, wine lovers in Romania were forced to travel abroad to practise wine tourism, but Romanian enotourism has become increasingly common in recent years. Geographical location, scenery, diversity, history, and indigenous vine varieties are clear advantages that wineries ‘owners can use to attract domestic and foreign tourists to local wine areas,” adds Alina Iancu.
Cellars can be visited all year round, but landscapes are most attractive during April-October. A tourist has to pay around EUR 100 for a weekend of wine tasting, meals and accommodation, plus shipping costs.
Wine tourism, also known as Enotourism or Oenotourism, represents, more precisely, organized tours to cellars, presenting technological processes, visits to vineyards, guided wine tastings and cellars accommodations in or near them.
In order to promote wine tourism in Romania, Alina Iancu has developed several projects: CrameRomania.ro, which is the only bilingual (English and Romanian) database of local wineries, ReVino.ro which is an aggregator similar to Trip Advisor of wine cellars and specialized wine shops – wineries and restaurants – in Romania and REVINO Saloon – Discover the Wines of Romania (an event held at Bucharest Novotel Hotel between the 14th and 16th of May, bringing small and medium sized Romanian wineries to wine lovers ‘attention and aiming to popularize the vineyards which produce unique indigenous vine, in addition to fostering the interest in wine tourism).