Why Great Wine Tourism Starts With Better Questions
What wineries and wine destinations can learn by listening before they start talking!
Jamie Knee, International Wine Travel Speaker, Global Wine Presenter and leading voice in wine travel and enotourism, with winery guests.
By Jamie Knee, International Wine Travel Speaker, Global Wine Presenter, leading voice in wine travel and enotourism and creator of Wine as a Passport™
I recently came across a simple idea about conversation: if you want someone to keep talking, ask better questions. It immediately made me think about wine tourism.
I spend a great deal of time in tasting rooms, wine regions, hotels and hospitality environments around the world, both as a wine travel writer and through my work as an international wine travel speaker. For anyone planning an inspiring presentation or seeking expert advice in the wine tourism industry, finding a knowledgeable Wine Travel Speaker can make all the difference.
Jamie Knee, International Keynote Wine Travel Speaker
One thing I have noticed repeatedly is how much we tell visitors. We tell them about the vineyard, the vintage, the winemaker, the history of the estate and how the wine was made. All of that matters. Yet some of the most memorable hospitality begins when we reverse the conversation and become curious about the person standing in front of us.
Asking better questions?
What Brought You Here?
It is such a simple question, but the answer can completely change the experience. One guest may have traveled specifically for wine. Another may be celebrating an anniversary. Someone else may simply be escaping the city for a weekend and know very little about the region. Once we understand why someone arrived, we can begin creating an experience that feels personal rather than prescribed.
What Are You Hoping to Experience?
A visitor does not always arrive wanting an education in fermentation or vineyard soils. Sometimes they do, and that is wonderful. But another traveler may want a beautiful view, a relaxing afternoon with friends, a memorable lunch or the chance to meet someone connected to the winery.
Asking what someone hopes to experience gives hospitality teams permission to listen before deciding what the visit should become.
This matters particularly as wine tourism expands beyond traditional tastings. Across the regions I visit, I am seeing winery restaurants, hotels, spas, vineyard walks, culinary programs, wellness experiences, art, music and outdoor activities becoming increasingly important parts of the journey. Wine may still be at the center, but it is no longer the entire experience.
What are you curious about beyond the winery?
What Are You Curious About Beyond the Wine?
This is where the idea behind Wine as a Passport™ becomes especially useful.
A glass of wine can be an invitation into a much larger destination. Once someone becomes curious about what they are tasting, where else might that curiosity lead?
Perhaps they would love the farmers market nearby. Maybe there is a restaurant serving ingredients grown a few miles away, a beautiful hotel they have never heard of, a hiking trail, an artisan, a historic neighborhood or a cultural experience that would help them understand the region more deeply.
When a winery can connect someone to those experiences, it becomes more than a place where the visitor stopped for a tasting. It becomes part of how they discovered the destination.That connection has value far beyond the tasting room.
What Would Make You Stay Another Night?
This may be my favorite question because it brings hospitality and destination strategy together. If a visitor is ready to leave at four o’clock, what might make them stay until tomorrow?
The answer may be a dinner reservation, a spa appointment, a second winery, a local festival or simply the realization that there is far more to experience than they originally understood.
For wine regions, that extra night matters. It can mean another hotel stay, another meal, another local business visited and another opportunity for the traveler to form a deeper relationship with the destination.
Through my work as a wine tourism speaker, I often return to this idea. Successful wine travel should create reasons to linger. That does not require every winery to become a hotel, restaurant and entertainment complex. It requires awareness of what exists beyond its own gates and a willingness to connect visitors with it.
What would make you stay another night?
From Visitor to Participant
The goal, in my view, is to help someone move from simply visiting a wine region to participating in it.
Participation happens when the traveler begins understanding the people, food, culture and rhythms of a place. It happens when someone remembers the woman who poured their wine, the restaurant they discovered afterward or the road they took because a winemaker suggested it.
Those memories are difficult to manufacture because they depend on genuine connection. That is why better questions matter.
The future of wine tourism will certainly involve beautiful tasting rooms, innovative technology and increasingly sophisticated visitor experiences. Yet the most powerful hospitality tool may still be something wonderfully simple: genuine curiosity about the person who has walked through the door.
Before we show visitors everything we want them to see, perhaps we should ask what they came hoping to discover. Their answer may tell us exactly where the journey should go next.
What it means to be a good wine traveler
Jamie Knee, Global wine travel presenter and International Wine Travel Speaker. enotourism presenter
About Jamie Knee
Jamie Knee is an International Wine Travel Speaker, Global Wine Presenter, award winning wine travel writer, Decanter contributing writer, Forbes Travel Guide Speaker and creator of Wine as a Passport™. She speaks internationally for wine regions, tourism organizations, hospitality groups, conferences and festivals about wine tourism, visitor experience, destination storytelling and the connections that encourage travelers to stay longer, explore more deeply and return. About Jamie Knee, Wine Travel Writer and the Voice of Entourism
For keynote speaking, presenting, moderating and destination collaborations, visit PetiteWineTraveler.com.
