What is happening in Greece? Who Knows? No one knows. No one knows how many wine tourists there are statistically, on an aggregated level. It is not recorded anywhere.
The Alpha estate and I mention it because we all know it, in 2020 we were told that in 2019, that is before covid it welcomed 14,000 visitors. We can see such data, but only occasionally, there is no official body to tell us.
Wine tourism and Greece. In Greece, private movements always come first, some people come who have passion, are enlightened, want to bring things forward and start long before the state. In Greece, everything started in the distant 2014, i.e. just 10 years ago, the concept of wine tourism was legally established. I will also say the other thing, when we started the wine tourism activity 4 years ago, we wanted to get a KAD and they told us, no, there is no wine tourism KAD, you can have a KAD, which says organized tours, have a KAD if you have a tour guide’s license, but not KAD that says wine tourism. Imagine where we are.
In 2015, it was first reported to have a winery visit badge, with similar physical specifications. This started in 2025 and in 2018 the final signal came out. Since 2019, the National Wine Tourism Committee has been operating. Operates; operates.
I say all this because this form of tourism is new in Greece. If we do not know the context in which we can develop, we will not understand along the way, what should we do for our country, for Western Greece?
In Greece, I was told that 1,600 wineries are registered. The Peloponnese, which can be visited with a badge, has only 22 wineries and as many more are in the process of being acquired.
Western Greece, Achaia, Ilia and Aitoloakarnania, has 40 wineries, declared for PDO, that is, they are wineries that are registered. How many can be visited and how many have a mark in our area? No one knows.
We come to us, wine tourism and Western Greece. Who was the first? Who is considered in Greece to have been the first wine tourist? According to Achaia Klaus it was Princess Sissy, who was invited by Gustavus Klaus and visited the winery and all the area where Achaia Klaus was then. He is therefore officially considered the first wine tourist in Greece.
What should we do to promote wine tourism in our region? We won’t reinvent the wheel, we have to do what everyone else is doing. First, to cooperate, not just wineries to cooperate. A network must be created that will be flexible, which will have, the focus area, will include, of course, the institutions and when I say institutions we mean the Regions, the municipalities, the university, which is a very big asset for us at the University of Patras, with important faculties, with the tourism department at the School of Management, of course with the hotels, which especially in the Achaia region lag behind all these hotel units, which would fit the profile of the hi end, the wine tourist who wants to waste money, who has, who wants to invest, who wants to have a good time, who wants to have a complete experience.
We don’t need to tell the myths. We said it, we are the myth wine was born in Greece, it was not born anywhere else in Europe. Wine came to Greece from Asia Minor, Macedonia and from Egypt to Crete.
So we are the myth, so we don’t need to tell it and even more about our place, as Mr. Rouvalis told me very nicely in a telephone meeting we had, let’s not forget that the Achaeans left here, with the second settlement and they went to Southern Italy, they went to Southern France, they settled some areas there and brought with them viticulture and wine production.
So we don’t have the myth? We have him. I will tell you my experience. I had been to a wine tourism conference and a representative from the Bulgarian Tourism Organization came and started talking to us about mavroud. They have made their own variety, they consider it absolutely native, it does not belong to anyone else, they have made it their flag, the black. That is, different varieties that were put together and called Mavroudi. So they have made this their own product. Others make up myths, we have them, we don’t need to make them up.
But the wine tourist also has unforgettable experiences, as the previous presenters said very nicely, you can’t just bring him and put him in a bar, to drink 2 glasses of wine.
They do this fNapa Valley and when they come here, and we take them to the vineyards, we show them the vineyards, we show them their roots, we say this is how we prune, the tourists get excited, that we don’t want to call them tourists either, we call them visitors. We want them to be ours, to feel that they are ours.
We are not Tuscany, we are not Rioja either, we are not a tourist destination, but we must also become a wine tourism destination. We are a destination, for other things, but we must include wine tourism in all that we have, add and have to offer.
We have a huge variety, we have wealth of our own. What are our assets? It is the myth, Achaia Claus, Olympia Land, the malagouzia discovered in Aitoloakarnania, it is the vineyards, we have vineyards in Western Greece that are from seaside vineyards to mountainous Aegialia, are the local varieties that are only ours, such as lagorthi, mavrodaphni in its sweet and dry version, and other varieties, we have a huge Greek heritage. We are not a region that has been making wine for the last 10, 20, 30 years and also this whole puzzle has a large urban center nearby that can play a catalytic role in the development of wine tourism in our region.
We have a local gastronomy, like Messolonghi roe, which may well come and match the wines of our region. Black laurels, in their sweet and dry versions, and of course, I chose only one of the products, the slice of Kalavrytawhich has won many awards, which has recognition abroad, on which we can build many things.
In the Peloponnese, there are 178 wineries and 40 participate in the wine roads. The wine roads are what wine tourism is based on. In Northern Greece they started in 1997 to do the wine routes, they have 8 wine routes, with 33 participating wineries. In Crete, which started in 2006, 90% of the wine produced is represented by 35 wineries, which also participate in the network, the wine tourism of Crete.
Will our effort, -because now we have nothing, except for the Wineries-, a success story? We will see.
