Wine Tourism and Environment in Australia

Corey Gargiulo

 

With over sixty wine regions across the greater Australian landscape and the increased popularity in wine as a whole across the world, the tourism industry in Australian wineries has been booming. Regions range from Perth in the Western Australia to the coastal regions of Queensland with the majority of regions placed in New South Wales and Victoria. Regions are also present in South Australia as well as the Tasmanian Island. No longer is wine exclusively for the rich, older successful crowd, as knowledge increases, prices decrease and younger crowd in their 20’s and 30’s are beginning to impact the Wine Industry as a whole.

For being of relatively young age as a nation, the success of Australia’s wine industry is far beyond its age. The first successful vineyard in Australia was erected in 1791 in Parramatta by Philip Schaffer, a German settler. Schaffer then came to produce the first Australian wine vintage in 1795. Despite Schaffer’s early success, a colonial sheep breeder by the name of John MacArthur and his Camden Park property in New South Wales grew to be the largest and most popular early vineyard.

Australia has virtually every variety recognized by wine drinkers thanks to viticulturist James Busby, an immigrant to Australia from France in 1824. Busby was quickly appointed to oversee an agricultural school focusing on viticulture and six years later Busby brought the school’s first cask of wine to England which received promising reviews. A year later Busby toured Western Europe collecting over 500 vine cuttings, 362 of which survived the trip back to Australia where he planted source blocks in New South Wales, Victoria and Southern Australia. By 1850, large vineyards were being built off these three blocks, starting a quick and successful growing wine industry.

Australia’s wine industry success, which has grown immensely in a 20 year time frame, has been primarily due to exportation. Exports of Australian wines in 1986 were exceeded by the countries imports, but by ’91 the country was exporting A$200 million, which has leaped exponentially to over A$1 Billion in 1999 and over A$2.4 Billion in 2004. The UK as of 2004-2005 has been Australia’s largest importer, taking in 43% of Australian wine exports, with the United States close behind importing 40% of exports at just over A$1 Billion. Exports are also made to New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Japan and Scandinavia. Australia’s wine industry has become so successful in such a short period of time that the nation has become the fourth largest exporter of wine behind France, Italy and Spain, exporting to over 100 countries. Australia also ranks 5^th in total wine production behind the same countries previously listed with the addition of the United States.

At first the success appears to be external, with a huge amount of business being done overseas, yet the trend inside of Australia is growing towards tourism and vineyards becoming more than places to pick up a bottle of wine. Tourists from both Australia and across the globe make adventures out of wine tours ranging from a day to a weekend as trips are no longer for solely for a bottle of wine but for a cultural experience. Despite a decline in tourism as a whole as reported by Tourism Australia, the number of visits to wineries in Australia has been on the rise. Visitors of wineries from overseas have increased from 437,000 to 696,000 from 2000 to 2006, an 8% yearly increase as opposed to only a 2% increase of overseas visitors to Australia. On average overseas visitors spent $95 on not only wine, but merchandise and souvenirs such as cook books. (http://www.wineaustralia.com)

            Overseas visitors to Australia’s wineries are just a glimpse into how booming the industry has truly become in such a short period of time. In six years from 2000 to 2006 native Australians visiting wineries increase from 3.6 million a year to 4.9 million, a 5.5% yearly increase against a flat activity in domestic tourism activities due to high gas prices and travel competition. There also lies a difference in the types of visitors at Australian wineries. Over the same six year period day domestic visits increased from about 1.8 million visitors a year to 2.2 million a year while overnight visitors from Australia skyrocketed from 1.9 million a year to over 2.5 million, with New South Wales being the favorite state for both domestic and overseas visitors. The majority of overseas wine tourists to Australia come primarily from Europe and the UK and the United States and Canada. (Roberts, 4)

            A large part of the increased success in wine tourism has to do with the availability and uniqueness of activities offered in Australia. Many tours which are reasonably priced around the A$100 mark offer a daylong adventure to up to five different wineries in an area and can also offer cheese and chocolate tastings as well. Other activities unique to Australia include a Hunter Valley tour which takes tourists to a wild reptile park, offers morning tea and coffee along with the opportunity to have a photo taken with a koala and kangaroo. Many tours cater to both native Australians as well as overseas tourist, as a trend of more private tours increases. Many tours are limited in numbers fewer than twenty and many tour companies offer private bookings for small groups. Tours are extremely accessible both by personal transportation as well as guided bus tours. The demographics of Australian winery visitors is expansive, but 70% are couples with 44% being over the age of 50. 74% of visitors have had a glass of wine in the previous month.

            International visitors spend more in general than do domestic visitors as tours become a part of a new cultural experience. Many wineries today in Australia offer restaurants, accommodations and a variety of activities. The experience shifts from just tasting a new wine, but learning about Australian life, culture and food. Many opportunities for activities other than just wineries on tours include national park, museum and art gallery visits and historical sites. All these appeal to both domestic and international visitors.

The environment also has had an effect on tourism and the wine industry as a whole. So far in the year 2007 Australia has suffered a drought with many counties and cities having potable water quotas and bushfires can also raise concern of production. Problems in production in a current surplus market can possibly raise prices and deter some visitors from making tours. Australian growers have been affected by climate, drought and frost in particular which have led to huge decrease in production since winter 2006. National grape harvests dropped from 1.9 million tons down to 1.3 million, a 30% drop in a matter of six months. Bushfires have only added to the problems of the 2007 vintage growers. Frost and drought conditions had already hurt production numbers, and with bushfire smoke blanketing the remaining vines many growers, much of the production was undrinkable and some lost up to half of their year’s production. Many growers have been forced into selling whatever they could pick in order to make some money in fear of bushfires claiming vines. The effects of these such events is much more apparent on smaller vineyards like Christmont in Victoria which is losing $400,000 (3000 cases) in a lost pinot grigio vintage without consideration of other varieties being harmed as well. (Allen, 47)

            The effects of such environmental hazards do however have some positive effects for growers, even if isn’t immediately clear. The deterioration of some varieties in some vineyards will cause a raise in the price for grapes, so those vineyards selling grapes to other companies to be bottled and sold will help them recover. With a great surplus in wine in Australia, with over 2000 wineries covering over 169,000 hectares of land at times production quality can be low. With a purge of wineries due to tax incentives and glamour, many wineries loss focus on quality of production. Such a loss in grapes may cause some wineries to back out of the business, sell their grapes at a higher price or work on better production of their wines.( Allen, 47) Not all is lost however. Another upside to production loss has been the ability of some wineries to adapt and make use of bushfire harmed grapes. Yellow Tail, a popular Australian wine in America managed to salvage bushfire grapes from Victoria vineyards and blend the grapes with other varieties with no detection of taste differentiation to expert tasters. (McNicoll)

            Climate changes are also becoming more of a concern. As the wolrd as a whole is coming to accept global warming and the effects it has on our environment, sensitive grape growing will undoubtedly need to adjust and find grapes and varieties that will better exist in the warming climate. (Allen, 49) Not all effects of climate change will be negative to grape growers and wine makers. Many vineyards will just need to change focus on varieties in order to maintain their success. There is great concern that many of the warm climate vinicultures will not be able to survive an increase in heat, however it may just turn to new regions making new wines, or some regions solely changing their focus. It is also believed that the cooler regions such as Tasmania and the Canberra district may have to move away from dry and sparkling wines to fruitier table wines. (Diestch, 21)

If either of these theories holds up, it may hurt the tourism industry. Many are in fear of going out of business while others may see a surge in wine tourism as they’re able to produce more favorable wines. Whichever way the environment goes, there will undoubtedly be some be some change in the wine industry of Australia.

 

           

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Allen, Max. “The Lost Vintage,” The Weekend Australian Magazine, 47.

Australian Government, The Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation. http://www.wineaustralia.com,

Belinda. Australian Brandy and Wine Corporation. Informal Email. information@awbc.com.au. June 28 2007 general inquiries phone: (08) 8228 2010  

Dietsch, Peter. “How Climate change will hit the wine hearlands” The Canberra Review, 21.

McNicoll, D.D. “Bushfire grapes salvaged” The Australian. Page unavailable

Mcwilliam, Nora. Marketing Manager Huntery Valley Tourism.

Roberts, Greg. “Wine Tourism barreling along at seller’s door,” Sydney Mourning Herald, 4.