In 2023, global wine consumption fell to its lowest level since 1961. A figure that could have sounded like a verdict. Yet over the same period, Italian wineries that invested in wine tourism hospitality reported growing profits and productivity levels 33% higher than those that stayed on a traditional path. This is the finding of When Wine Meets Tourism, the report by Roberta Garibaldi in collaboration with SRM Research Center, presented at Hospitality Riva del Garda in February 2026.
The conclusion is straightforward: the economic future of wine producers does not rely on the bottle alone.
The Garibaldi/SRM report is based on a sample of 200 companies and provides clear figures. In 2024, the median ROE of businesses that invested in wine tourism reached 1.7%. For those that did not invest, the figure was close to zero. Productivity per employee told the same story: €70,000 versus €52,000. Revenue growth over the 2019–2024 period showed a gap of more than five percentage points: +18.4% compared with +13.1%.
Companies that developed hospitality in a more structured way achieved even stronger results: €75,890 in productivity per employee and revenue growth of 27%. Seventy-seven percent of wine tourism businesses invested during the 2022–2024 period, a higher share than even the hotel sector, traditionally considered the hospitality industry par excellence.
For the 2025–2027 period, 53% of businesses in the sector plan new investments, with growing attention to training, digital tools and sustainability.
A wine tourist arrives with specific expectations: a tasting, a lunch, a good bottle of wine and perhaps a litre of olive oil to take home. They want a walk through the vineyards and a place to stay that reflects the territory they have chosen. If every business works independently, the visitor completes the first stop and moves on because there is no continuity.
When businesses build a shared offer, with integrated itineraries and complementary experiences, that same visitor stays longer, spreads spending across different categories and then shares the experience with others. That is the difference between a visitor and an ambassador for the territory.
Data from the Wine Suite Observatory presented at Vinitaly Tourism on 15 April 2026 confirm the trend: almost half of Italian wineries, 49%, report a direct contribution from wine tourism of up to 30% of total business profit. For 18% of companies, tourist arrivals account for more than 60% of margins. Direct winery sales grew by 18.8% in 2025 compared with the previous year.
Valpantena has the territory, the businesses and the project. The market is willing to come, stay and return. The condition is that the offer is visible, accessible and recognisable as a connected system. Building a network is not an idealistic choice; it is an economic one. The numbers confirm it.