Wine tourism

Wine tourism refers to tourism whose purpose is or includes the tasting, consumption, or purchase of wine, often at or near the source. Wine tourism can consist of visits to wineries, vineyards, and restaurants known to offer unique vintages, as well as organized wine tours, wine festivals, or other special events. Many wine regions around the world have found it financially beneficial to promote such tourism; accordingly, growers associations and others in the hospitality industry in wine regions have spent significant amounts of money over the years to promote such tourism. This is true not only to "Old World" producers (such as Spain, France or Italy), but also for the so-called "New World wine" regions (such as Australia, Argentina, or Chile), where wine-tourism plays an important role in advertising their products. In Argentina, for example, the Mendoza Province is slowly becoming one of the top tourist destinations in the country as Argentine wine strides to gain international recognition. The National Wine Centre of Australia is a tourism venue that showcases the entire Australian wine industry. It is an education hub for tourists, the general public and full time students. The National Wine Centre is a teaching centre for wine-related academic programs of The University of Adelaide, Australia. The University of Adelaide, "the wine university", is one of the top two educators in the world for wine studies along with the University of California - Davis. Flinders University in Australia offers a degree program in food and wine tourism.